Leather, Sand, and Blood
by Rane1618
Summary: Lorelai Greens had grown up in Santa Carla. But once she turned 12, her parents split apart and she was forced to move away. After a few years, she decided to move back hoping to forget her past. But what happens when she runs into a group of teens that went looking for trouble once the sun goes down. Will she find herself in the dark with these boys, or in the light like always?
1. The Beginning

Santa Carla: a beach town in California. It was best known for its boardwalk with an amusement park, live concerts, lighthouse, and being the murder capital of the world. Back in the 80's, Santa Carla was a place where people went to be forgotten; runaways littered the streets, drugs and alcohol arrests were at a high, and the amount of missing person reports that turned into cold cases were insane.

Mary and Chris Green had grew up in Santa Carla, high school sweethearts that later on got married. They were in Santa Carla thought out the 80's and were able to tell the tale of how it went from Murder Capital to average town in the matter of 10 years. Originally, Mary had wanted to get out of the beach town once they were married; Santa Carla in her mind hadn't changed since they were in their teens and it was no place to raise children. She wanted to live in a place where her kids could walk around the block and she wouldn't have to worry if they would make it back for dinner. Chris, on the other hand, loved the little beach town. He grew up smelling the ocean air and walking the boardwalk at night and he wanted his children to do the same. Besides, the beach town hadn't had a murder since the late 80's, and even then they weren't sure it was an actual murder. A family was there one moment then the next, gone, disappeared without a trace.

But after they were married, Chris ended up buying them their first home and getting a job at a local university teaching Urban Legends studies and Mary ended up settling into a position at the local library. Before she knew it, Mary was pregnant and it was past the point of leaving their small little town, at least for the time being.

The clearest memory Lorelai had of Santa Clara was not the most pleasant. Her family had taken her to the boardwalk as a little family outing. She was 12 years old, so old enough to walking around by herself, granted her parents wanted her to stay in their line of sights, not that she really minded, it still gave her the feeling of freedom. The past few weeks, her parents had been fighting about petty little things, making them unbearable to be near, but this outing was even worse than when they were home, not because of the fighting, but due to the lack of anything. The entire drive over was silent as ever, and as they were walking, they weren't even looking at each other. Now Lorelai had no clue what they were fighting about, but she knew that once the silent treatment started, she would be used as a messenger between the two of them and that always turned ugly. Lorelai wanted to enjoy the nice night without her parents making things awkward for her, so when she realized that her parents weren't paying any attention, she ducked into the large crowd waiting for tickets, wiggling her way through the people and emerging on the other side of them, well out of her parents sights.

Although she loved being in the lights of the boardwalk, Lorelai really didn't want to be around people. Honestly, what Lorelai really wanted was to be curled up in her bed, sobbing into her pillows. If her parents would have put their differences aside, then maybe the boardwalk would have been an amazing outing, but of course they couldn't put on an act, even for their daughter's benefit. So she climbed under the metal railing that marked the edge of the boardwalk, checking to make sure that no security guards were looking before dropping down onto the cool sand. Lorelai took a glance at the underside of the boardwalk, shivering when she saw how dark it looked, light only shining through a few places were the wooden planks were chipped or uplifted.

Lorelai wanted to stay in the lighted part of the beach, which was only a foot or two away from the boardwalk, but that would have meant that she would be in plain sight for anyone looking out to the beach, which defeated the whole point of her venturing out. So she took a deep breath, walking out closer towards the crashing waves, farther into the darkness. It was a half moon that night with a relatively clear sky, which meant that the moon was giving off just enough light where she could make out shapes in the darkness, but no one would be able to see her from the brightly lit boardwalk. When she finally reached the water, she walked where the sand was still damp from the waves drifting up, but not completely soaking her legs, the water gently went over her flip flop covered feet, sending chills up her legs.

After walking far enough away from the spot she jumped down from, she moved slightly up from the water, taking off the now wet flip flops, and sat in the dry sand, pulling her legs up to her chest. She sat there, watching and listening to the waves crashing on the shore. Lorelai could feel the tears welling up in her eyes before finally she couldn't hold back the tears. As everything became blurry, she buried her face in her knees, letting the sobs rack through her shivering frame.

As she was crying, she couldn't hear the rustling of clothes as someone approached her from behind. The person was hesitant, pausing every so often while looking at the young girl who was oblivious to them. Lorelai didn't know that there was anyone near her until a hand was placed on her shoulder, causing her to gasp and scramble away from the figure. "Whoa, sorry! I didn't mean to scare you, I just heard crying and wanted to make sure you were alright." Lorelai got up after her heart beat slowed to a less pounding pace, squinting in the dark at the figure before her, which was hard with the bright lights at his back. Based on his voice and height, he seemed to be around the same age as her and he had wavy, almost curly hair, but what was all that she could make out about this stranger.

"I-I'm fine. It's just been a rough night is all." Her throat was raw from the crying session she just had, and she could feel the tears quickly drying on her cheeks along with her puffy eyes hurting from the rubbing she did to try and stop the stream of tears. She let out a small laugh, looking over the boys shoulder at the boardwalk behind him. "Actually, it's been a rough couple of months." The boy walked next to her, looking out at the waves. Now that he was closer, Lorelai could make out that his hair was a lighter color and based on his facial features, he didn't look much older then her.

"Parents huh? Mine used to fight all the time. But things got better once they were divorced, at least, they began talking I had my older brother, or else I would have been miserable." Lorelai sighed, looking out at the waves with the boy, shaking her head.

"At least you had someone to distract you. I don't have anyone." The boy looked over at her, smiling with an outstretched hand.

"Well, at least you have someone to talk to now. I'm Sam Emerson." Lorelai glanced down at the hand that was stretched out for her to take. There was something off about this boy, she knew that much, but she enjoyed the small distraction he provided; at least she wasn't crying anymore. Taking his hand in hers, she shook, smiling back up at him.

"I'm Lorelai Green." They both began walking away from the ocean, back up to the boardwalk. "Thank you, by the way." Sam looked over at her, confusion crossing over his features. "For scaring me out of my pity party back there." He shrugged, giving her a smile. As they got farther into the light of the boardwalk, Lorelai was finally able to see his full outfit. His hair was blond and longer on the top, and his outfit was full of colors and a little big on him, along with being slightly dirty. When they got to the boardwalk, Lorelai put on her flip flops before Sam helped her up, following soon after. Nobody noticed the two kids that emerged from the beach, which made the two of them feel giddy inside; the beach closes at sundown, so they weren't technically allowed on the beach, and that excited Lorelai. After walking farther up the boardwalk, Sam stopped, causing Lorelai to pause as well.

"Well, I better get going. By brother and friends will be wondering where I wondered off to. It was nice to meet you, Lorelai Green." Lorelai waved after her friend as he began to jog away from her, leaving her alone once again. Lorelai began to walk back up the boardwalk but paused, looking behind her. Something loud had caught her attention: the roar of engines and loud laughter. She saw Sam climbing on the back of a motorcycle, one of the 5 that were all purring to life. Just as quickly as they appeared, so they left, driving into the darkened streets.

With a sigh, Lorelai decided to continue her walk up the boardwalk, figuring that she would have to face the wrath of her parents eventually. When she finally got to her parents, they were arguing infront of one of the boardwalk security guards, the poor man was standing there with a notepad open, looking between the couple like a deer caught in headlights. When her parents finally had a break in their yelling match, the guard pointed out Lorelai walking behind them, causing them to rush over, giving her hugs and saying how worried they were.

"Where were you?! You had us so worried!" Her mother was kneeling infront of her, looking for any sign that she was hurt while her father was thanking the officer and apologizing for the commotion they made.

"I went onto the beach then went farther up the boardwalk with a friend, I didn't mean to make you worry." Her mother patted her on the head before standing, looking around for the friend that her daughter had mentioned.

"And where is this friend of yours? Have we met them before?" Lorelai shook her head, putting her hands in the pockets of her cream colored sweater.

"He had to go. And no, I just met him; his name is Sam Emerson." Her parents exchanged a look, so small that not even Lorelai caught it. "Can we go to the arcade now?"

Later that night, after Lorelai was asleep, her parents were sitting in the living room, watching tv in silence.

"How strange..." Chris Green was staring off in the distance, not really focused on any particular thing. "Wasn't the family that disappeared named Emerson?" Mary Green was watching the late night news, but that comment drew her attention away. "It's probably just a coincidence...But I could have sworn one of the Emerson boys was named Sam as well.." Mary chuckled, patting her husbands leg before getting up.

"Oh Honey, you are letting your horror stories that you tell your students get to your head." Chris rolled his eyes, following his wife upstairs after turning off the tv.

"Dear, they are Urban Legends, not horror stories."


	2. The Traumatic Past

It wasn't long after that night that Mary had told her husband that she wanted a divorce and that she would be taking Lorelai with her. Lorelai and Sam hung out a few times after they met, but when she had to break the news to her new friend, it was as if they had known each other their whole lives. And although they promised to stay in contact and see each other when Lorelai would come to visit, that was the last time that they saw each other.

Four years have gone by, and Lorelai Green was now a teenager, a very angry teenager. After her mother had told her father that she wanted to leave him, Lorelai was torn. She didn't want to leave Santa Carla, didn't want to leave her childhood home, didn't want to leave her father. But Lorelai was only 14, and she had no choice in the matter. Her mother had gotten full custody of her with little fight from her father; he was always at the university working and wouldn't have time taking care of an adolescent girl.

Mary Green had always wanted to leave Santa Carla, she didn't want to raise her daughter in that town, and now she finally got her wish. Lorelai wouldn't have minded the move if it was just to a different town close to the boardwalk, or even if it was just within California. But no, Mary wanted to get as far away as she could from Santa Carla, so she found a house in Seaside heights, New Jersey, all the way across the country. Lorelai thanked her for picking a state that at least wasn't landlocked, but the east coast and west coast were very different from one another. Seasides boardwalks, though there were many of them, just couldn't compete with Santa Carla's, especially considering that they were all separated along the got to the point where Lorelai didn't even want to go to the beach anymore, though every so often to get away, she would go to Sandy Hook and enjoy the private beaches there and the light house.

Mary Green had moved on and found a new man, Stanley Martin. At first, Lorelai didn't mind him all that much; he was a fun man who seemed to care about her and her mother very much. But after the wedding, everything changed. His personality did a complete 180 on them, and while Mary couldn't seem to see the change, Lorelai was all too aware.

Lorelai and her mother used be be very close to one another. They would stay up late watching old movies and shows, gossip and go out on little adventures with one another, but after the marriage was finalized, they all but stopped speaking to one another. Stanley would become angry if he saw the two of them acting how they used to, so he would come up with something, anything, to cause the mother and daughter to fight. It got to the point where Lorelai couldn't eave her phone on the nightstand or have a diary anymore because her mother or stepfather would go looking through them. At one point, after a rather nasty fight between Mary and Stanley, Lorelai heard him call her mother and her "sluts" and "cunts", to which Lorelai wrote down in her diary, sobbing. The next day, she noticed that the page had been ripped out and her mother all but chewed her head off, denying that her new husband had ever said those things about them.

Lorelai knew that her mother was brainwashed by the monster, but she also knew that he wasn't afraid to hurt either of them. She had caught him a few times hitting her mother, mostly when he was drunk or in front of his nasty friends, though those two things went hand in hand. And though Lorelai and her grandparents told Mary to leave the bastard, she would just start yelling at them, saying that she wouldn't be able to survive on her own or that she would never find another man like him.

So Lorelai went from worried, to scared, to just plain pissed in those four years; she would wear dark clothes and listen to angry music, anything to release the anger that she was feeling. She didn't want to live in that hell hole any longer. She had called and begged her father to let her move in with him, but each time he would try and convince Mary, she would take him to court and testify that he was unfit, spilling lies that her stepfather would tell her the night before; he didn't care if Lorelai was there or not, all he cared about was the child support that Chris payed for Lorelai, which would go right into Stanleys pocket. But finally, Lorelai had reached her breaking point.

It was just before Lorelais summer break, all she had to do was show up for the last week while the final grades were put into the system and then she was officially done with school. It was the middle of the night, Lorelai laid in bed, sweating due to the lack of air conditioning that reached her upstairs room. She had a small fan on her nightstand that blew right on her face, but it did little due to the humidity causing the low of the night to be 87 degrees. She could hear the loud, drunken laughter floating up through the air vents from the basement, her step father and his friends would keep this up until they passed out in the early morning. Lorelai groaned, tossing around and kicking off what little covers she had on still. It was too hot in her room, and while downstairs was significantly cooler, she didn't like the idea of sleeping anywhere near the bastards nor did she want to risk leaving her door open all night either. But eventually, Lorelai couldn't stand the heat and needed a glass of cold water to cool her down. Cracking open her bedroom door, she listened for any sounds of footsteps coming up the stairs from the basement. After waiting a few moments, she decided that the coast was clear and silently descended down her stairs, walked through the small living room and went into the kitchen.

She didn't like being in any exposing clothes around the older men, not liking the way that they stared at her, but figuring that they were all downstairs and she would only be a moment anyhow, she didn't change out of her tank top or sleep shorts, both of which were tighter then she felt comfortable with in front of people but loved to sleep in. Grabbing a glass from the cabinet, she quickly filled it with ice before going over to the sink, filling it up and taking a long sip, feeling instantly better. Just as she was about to fill it back up and escape up to her room, she heard the toilet flush and the bathroom door open, causing her blood to turn cold. She had been so carful to avoid these men, and now she fucked up, all for a glass of water.

The man rounded the corner, about to go back downstairs, but it was just Lorelai's luck that the door to the basement had a full view of the kitchen. When he saw Lorelai standing there, holding the glass of water and wearing her sleep outfit, he smirked, running his eyes all over her. Lorelai shivered at the mans drunken look, and she wished that she was wearing something baggier, more concealing, but that wouldn't have mattered to him, even just seeing her face would have been enough.

"Hey there are you doing up this late." Lorelai could hear the slurring of his voice, but his eyes were clear, meaning that she couldn't hope to outrun him and pray that his drunk coordination would allow her to escape. She watched as he came closer to her, backing her up into the counters corner Lorelai was trapped, she knew that much for sure, but she didn't know what to do to get away.

"S-stay away from me. I-I swear ill-" The man was now right in front of her, close enough that she could smell the beer that lingered on his mouth and over his shirt, the stench of his oder making her gag.

"You swear what? There ain't nothing you can do." She tried to look away from him, but she could feel his eyes burning into her. "Aren't you a little thing." As she looked past his side, she could see her mother just at the edge of the hallway, looking at the two of them. Lorelai called out to her mother, begging the woman to do something, anything, but her mother just turned and walked away, causing tears to rush to Lorelai's eyes. The man then reached out, grabbing her leg and causing Lorelai to drop the glass that she forgot that she was holding onto, and began thrashing against him and he touched and grabbed at her. Looking for anything that could help her, Lorelai reached behind her, grabbing a pair of scissors that were laying in a basket on the counter. Without even thinking, she brought them down first on his hand then on his shoulder, causing him to scream out in pain but thankfully release her. Scrambling away from the man, she rushed out of the kitchen and through the living room, hearing the pounding of feet as the other men from the basement came running up.

Once Lorelai got to her room, she shut and locked the door before grabbing her phone and rushing to her window. As soon as she opened the window, loud pounding began on her bedroom door.

"You little bitch! Open this door up right now!" Her step father was a big man, so if he wanted to, he could easily break the door down. Lorelai climbed onto the roof, closing the window behind her and crawling to a dark corner where even if they looked out, they wouldn't be able to see her. Unlocking her phone, Lorelai noticed that she was shaking, so much so that it was hard to dial. After she pressed 9-1-1, she then realized that the scissors she had used on the man inside were still in her hand.

"9-1-1, can I have your name and address?" After a few moments of trying to register what had happened, she told the lady on the other side of the phone of the events that just occurred. In the matter of minutes, 4 police cars screeched to a stop infront of her house, the officers all rushing inside. A female officer helped her back inside the house, and when Lorelai stepped down on the carpet of her room, she winced when she put pressure down on her foot.

"We have an ambulance outside waiting for you. Can you tell me what happened?" Lorelai was shaking and felt exhausted all at once as she climbed down her steps and into the front yard where there was ambulance waiting for her. The medics tried to get her to sit and give her a blanket, but she froze at the mens outstretched hands, causing the female officer to take the blanket and nod to them. Wrapping the blanket around Lorelai, the officer sat her down on the back of the truck, gently taking the scissors from Lorelai, putting them in an evidence bag.

This wasn't the first time that officers had been called to the address, though it was mainly for noise complaints or trash left on yards from the night before. The officer that sat with Lorelai had been here before and she had seen how skittish her mother was and how Lorelai refused to talk to anyone; they all knew it was only a matter of time before they got a call like this. The officer took a few pictures of Lorelai's bleeding foot and and a bruise that was forming on her wrist and side before the medics began removing the small glass shards from her foot and bandaged it up. After Lorelai was calmer, the female officer began asking her questions about what had happened.

The officer took notes on her account, frowning. She understood what Lorelai had just gone through, but couldn't believe that her own mother had let this happen. " We are going to get you to the station so you can make an official report if you would like. Do you have anyone else that you would like us to call? Any other family members?" After giving the officer her fathers number, Lorelai stood up, handing the blanket over to the medics who thanked her.

As Lorelai walked towards the officers car, she saw her mother standing on the front porch, standing behind her step-father who was speaking to an officer. While her mother didn't give Lorelai so much of a glance, her step-father sneered over in her direction while his 'buddy', the man who attacked her, was getting his neck and shoulder wrapped up the back of a squad car. Although Lorelai was going to miss her mother, she knew that she was finally free from this house, she could finally go home.


	3. The Return

It only took her father 6 hours to make it to the police station. By then, Lorelai had already filled out her paperwork on her complaint form and then filled out her needed pages on getting her custody changed over to her father. The captain didn't want to hold up the father and daughter, nor did he want to risk letting Lorelai return back to that house, so he put a few calls in to a judge who agreed to review the case and send over the new notice, allowing Chris to take his daughter with him back to California. The father and daughter talked about what had happened last night, and Chris Green couldn't believe that his little girl defended herself that well. He calmed her down, letting her know that she wouldn't be in trouble for stabbing the man, that she did what she needed to do in terms of self defense. The case was quickly shut down in favor of the girl and her father, to the relief of everyone.

"What about all of my things? They are still at the house and I don't want to go back there alone." Lorelai looked over at the female officer, the same one that helped her off the roof. She had remained by Lorelai the entire night, helping the young girl with the paper work.

"I am more than willing to go with you two. We will make sure that no one is there to bother you while you pack." Chris nodded a thanks to the officer before she went over to a few of her coworkers disguising how they wanted to handle the situation.

"Lets go get a few boxes from the store while they talk things out, huh?" Lorelai got up, following her father to the parking lot where the rental car was parked. By now, the sun was overhead, causing Lorelai to blink in surprise at the brightly lit surroundings. She knew that it was going to be light out, but it still shocked her none-the-less. "If you want some food, just let me know and we will stop instantly." The car ride was rather silent, Chris not really knowing how to handle the situation, seeing how the last time he saw his daughter she was still just a child. But Lorelai didn't mind the quiet, she actually longed for the peace and stillness, and along with that she found her fathers awkwardness to be quite funny.

After buying a few cardboard boxes, bubble wrap, and tape, the father-daughter duo taking the ride to Mary Greens new house, Lorelai guiding her father through the streets. By the time they arrived, the police had already cleared the house of Lorelai's mother and stepfather, the female officer waiting patiently on the front porch. Taking a deep breath, Lorelai got out of the car, helping her father carry in the packing materials. She led her father and the officer up to her room, pulling out suitcases and setting up the boxes before they began to pack.

Lorelai didn't have many things, at least not many things that she couldn't bear to part with. She had minimal clothing, enough so that her clothes and shoes all fit into the one large suitcase. A lot of her outfits consisted of vintage clothes that she picked up over the years at thrift shops; her mother used to joke around, saying that Lorelai was an old soul that belong to a different period of time. Putting the small amount of makeup that she owned in the suitcase as well, she zipped it shut before finally pulling objects off of the walls. The only things she truly wanted were her photographs that she took over the years, along with a few cross stitches that she had made and framed.

Overall, packing only took them about 3 hours, most of it consisted of her father throwing bubble wrap at her, causing a small pop battle to ensure. After that was all done, they brought the boxes to a post office, labeling the boxes with Chris Greens address and paying for overnight shipping, that way Lorelai would be able to set up her room quickly.

By nightfall, Lorelai found herself standing in a little convenience store in the airport, waiting in line to buy a soda and some chips to snack on while waiting for the plane to her new, or rather old, home. The past days events washed over her, making her feel tired and worn out. While she was glad to be moving back in with her father, she really didn't want this to be the way. She was going to miss her mother, no matter how much she had changed over the years, even after she did nothing to help Lorelai, she didn't blame the woman, seeing how far under her stepfathers thumb she was. Smiling at the lady at the register, Lorelai paid for her items before walking back to her father, handing over the change before settling next to him, eating a few chips at a time. She wasn't necessarily hungry, but she knew that she would regret not eating all day later on, so she figured a salty snack would be enough to hold her over until her appetite came back to her.

Glancing over, she saw that her father was working on something, reading papers and marking up the sides. "Whats that?" Startled, Chris looked over at his daughter, removing the reading glasses that were perched on his nose. He held up one of the packets for her to grab, letting her flip through it.

"Its some of my students work. A few of them wrote these essays to be published and I have to decide what needs to be edited for them before we go to a convention." Realization crossed over his features and he frowned, looking off in the distance. "The convention which is in two weeks. You know, I'm sure they will understand if I don't go, my assistant can take my place." Lorelai looked up at her father, disappointment clear on his face. She didn't feel all to comfortable being alone in an area that she hasn't been to in years, but at the same time, she didn't want to hinder her father. Handing the essay back to her father, Lorelai laughed, shaking her head.

"Oh you are going to that convention! I'm old enough to stay by myself for what, a week?" Her father put his glasses back on his face, looking over at some of his notes.

"More like 2 or 3 weeks. No, it's alright, i'll just stay back on this one." Lorelai held a pointed finger up at her father, smiling lightly. That was a really long time to be alone, but that wasn't a bad thing, at least it didn't have to be. And besides, it wasn't her fathers fault that he was thrown into this situation and she didn't want him to have to change anything for her sake.

"You better not! I won't take no as an answer mister, you are going to that convention and you will like it!" Her father threw up his hands mockingly, causing Lorelai to laugh.

"Yes Ma'am." The rest of their wait was in silence as her father went over the essays that he had. Lorelai took the opportunity to look around at all of the people that were waiting for their flights. Lorelai liked to people watch, she enjoyed viewing people when they thought that no one was paying attention. While she knew it was a little strange, she privately enjoyed seeing peoples true faces and actions, their masks dropped and walls down. Plus at an airport, there was bound to be interesting people to watch.

Lorelai didn't even know that she fell asleep until her father shook her awake, all papers put away and luggages in tow. "We are going to miss our flight if you don't wake up pumpkin." Lorelai groaned at the nickname, rolling her eyes as she stretched out her back. She remembered her father calling her that growing up, and while she didn't mind the name when they were alone, in public it was sort of embarrassing. "Come on, you can sleep on the plane." Lorelai rose, taking a hold of her suitcase and allowing it to drag behind her as the went to the gate, giving the flight attendant their tickets before finally boarding the plane, settling into the cramped seats.

The flight passed by rather quickly, thanks to the book that Lorelai lost herself in, and the ride from the airport to Santa Carla was even shorter. Chris drove with the windows down, letting the sea air wash over Lorelai's face and tousle her hair back. The sign welcoming them to Santa Carla was worn out from the sun, though she could tell it was once brightly colored and cheerful looking. They passed by the lighthouse, followed by the boardwalk. "Surprisingly that place is still opened. Do you remember going when you were younger?" Lorelai smiled fondly as they passed by the shops and water, nodding her head. Faintly, she remembered her last night at the boardwalk, remembered talking to a boy that was slightly older than she was at the time. She found herself hoping that he might still live around here, having a familiar face would be nice, even though it was a few years since they last spoke. Only a few moments later, they were driving up through the woods that were just past the boardwalk, the dirt road causing the car to be bumpy, though it didn't last long. Chris stopped the car in front of a log cabin, one that was rather big and modern looking. "It may look a little different than what you remember. I had some updates done over the years." Lorelai got out of the car, grabbing her suitcase before approaching the house. "Did you need me to show you around again?" Lorelai shook her head, smiling faintly at the original front door.

"No, I think I remember my way. Is my room the same?" Her father nodded, unlocking the front door and letting his daughter walk in first, climbing the wooden steps up to the top floor. The inside was cozy, though the decorations consisted mainly of lamps, bookshelves filled to the brim with vintage spines facing out, and comfy chairs surrounding a glass table and sofa. Reaching the top floor, Lorelai looked left, seeing a door opened revealing a study of sorts; that used to be the master bedroom, but it appeared that her father couldn't stand sleeping in the room that he used to share with her mother. Turning right, she passed the bathroom that seemed unused before opening the door at the end of the hallway, letting out a small laugh. Her room was still the same as she remembered: walls painted a lilac shade, a desk next to the rather large bed, the large bay windows opened, a dresser settled next to the closed closet, and a bookcase set in the corner, filled with classics that her mother would read to her for bed.

"If you wanted, we can go out and buy things to redo your room?" Her father hesitated near the top of the stairs, avoiding the other room on the floor. Lorelai shook her head, smiling brightly at her father.

"No, everything looks perfect. Thanks though." Her father nodded, glancing down the stairs. "The rest of your things should be arriving shortly. I, uh, do have to go to the university though for a while, to give my students some feedback. But if you want, I can stay..." Lorelai shook her head, calling over her shoulder as she walked into the room.

"Dad, you're fine, go. I'm a big girl, I can handle unpacking myself." Taking a glance behind her, she shooed him with her hand, laughing. "Go!" Lorelai sat on her bed, closing her eyes and falling back onto her bed, listening to the distant waves crashing on the shore and the rocks of the cliffs. She took a moment to herself before sighing, moving to unpack her clothes. Halfway through unpacking her clothes, a knock sounded at the door, alerting Lorelai that the rest of her things had arrived.

By the time she finished with her suitcase and the boxes, the sun was already fading across the sky, a cool breeze blowing the lace curtains out towards her. Lorelai already set out her makeup on the top of the dresser and hung up all of her photos and cross stitches, leaving her with nothing to do. She sat in her bay window, staring out at the driveway. Lights lined the road, the soft glow getting brighter the darker it got. Squinting, she could faintly see that the lights went all the way down the dirt driveway, leading towards the main road. Deciding that she had nothing better to do, Lorelai threw on some new clothes consisting of an old guns and roses shirt and a pair of black jeans. She looked in the full length mirror, she rubbed at her face, skin paler then normal and worn out looking. Her hair fell in messy waves down to her back, and while it looked super messy, she didn't feel like ripping her hair out with a brush, just for the wind to mess it up again. So she decided with a little bit of eye shadow and lip gloss, just to make her appearance a little more presentable and a little less tired. Her freckles appeared darker on her pale skin, the darkest ones on her nose, dotting over her cheeks in a lighter tone before fading when they reached her cheekbones.

Making her way downstairs, she searched the tables and draws before finally finding a blank piece of paper and a pen. She would have thought finding something to write on would have been a piece of cake based on her father being a professor, but almost every sheet had some sort of note or writing on it. Scribbling a quick note on the paper she found, she placed it on the kitchen counter, putting a cup on one of the corners to make sure her father would see it and it wouldn't fly off onto the floor. She didn't know when her father was going to be home and she wanted to go explore the boardwalk, so to make sure he wouldn't worry, the note let him know where to find her and let him know that she had her phone on her, though it was almost dead.

As soon as she stepped outside, she shivered at a gust of wind that blew over her bare arms. Lorelai knew that tonight was a little colder than normal, but she enjoyed the cooler temperature, it made her skin vibrate and feel awaken again. She began her walk through the woods, sticking to the particularly brighter section of the road. She wasn't overly fond of the dark, not because she was scared of the particular darkness of it, but rather the idea of not being able to see what laid ahead of her. So with that, she stuck to the lights, even if it meant that her 5 minute walk would take 10 minutes instead to the boardwalk.


	4. The First Night Out

By the time Lorelai got to the boardwalk, the sun was fully set and the lights were bright and shinning. People were swarming the entrance of the boardwalk and Lorelai hesitated slightly when she saw the massive crowd on the actual strip. It wasn't that Lorelai had social anxiety, though that was a small part, it was more like she didn't like dealing with a lot of people at one time. She took a deep breath, trying to get her heart rate to slow down; she remembered the boardwalk having people on it. but for some reason she never remembered this many!

Once Lorelai was sure she wasn't going to pass out from a little panic attack, she moved forward towards the entrance, trying to avoid the people rushing past her. But of course, she somehow got pushed to the side of the entrance, a group of young girls giggling and staring lovingly at the high school boys that were leaning against the boardwalk sign, trying too hard to look cool. With a frustrated sigh, Lorelai paused in her pursuit to make it to the strip, deciding that standing by the parked motorcycles was a better option than getting stepped on by the puppy eyed girls again.

Lorelai looked over the bikes that she stood in front of, laughing slightly at the irony of the 5 bikes being parked in the tow away zone, though clearly no one cared enough to ticket them. One of the few friends she made out in New Jersey was a big motorcycle fanatic; she loved to restore old bikes and sell them off. Lorelai didn't understand the girl's fascination with the death traps, but she would hang out in the little make-shift garage in her backyard shed, watching her pull apart bikes just to put them back together again, almost like a mechanical had offered Lorelai a ride once on the back of her bike, assuring her that she would be perfectly safe, but Lorelai politely refused, stating that she would feel more safe inside of of a crashing plane then she would on the back of the bike. However, her small time with her friend proved to rub off on her, seeing how Lorelai was somehow able to recognize that the bikes were vintage and kept in very nice condition.

After spending a few more moments looking at the bikes, she figured it was safe to emerge into the moving sea of people, the young girls now on the other side of the entrance of the boardwalk. Once Lorelai was under the bright lights of the games and food stands, she felt as though she was 12 again, the smells and noises all bringing back childhood memories. She stayed as close to the railing as she could get, figuring that it was easier to dodge the people sitting on the metal bars then it was to dodge the kids and people running out of the shops that lined the other side of the strip. The more Lorelai looked around, the harder it got to hold back the giggles that threatened to rise up her throat; it appeared that Santa Carla's fashion was stuck back in the 80's and 90's, mohawks and bright colored jackets, along with more leather then necessary clad the by-passers, but Lorelai didn't mind, at least she would be able to blend in with her thrift shop outfits better then she had in New Jersey.

Pausing, she glanced up and down the boardwalk, eyebrows pulling together in lost confusion. She had remembered there being a comic book store somewhere, her and Sam used to go all the time back in the day and she was hoping that it was still somewhere around here, but she couldn't seem to remember if it was farther up the boardwalk or not. Figuring that it was better than wondering aimlessly, she walked into one of the shops, hoping the owner or at least a worker would be able to help her out. She quickly crossed the boardwalk, moving out of the way of people and apologizing the entire way before pausing at the brightly lit store. As she moved farther inside, she was pleasantly surprised that it was filled with old cassette tapes, records, VHS, and DVDs. "Can I help you find anything?" Lorelai turned, startled at the voice that came directly behind her. A woman was smiling kindly at her, her hair cut very short and outfit consisting mainly of a large sweater and a flowing skirt. Lorelai didn't even see the woman when she walked in, nor did she hear her come up behind her.

"No, well yes, maybe?" Lorelai blushed, mentally smacking herself, but the lady just laughed, nodding her head for Lorelai to continue. "Ok, let me start over. I used to live around here and just recently move back. I was trying to find a particular store, but it seems that I might have gotten a tad bit lost. Im trying to find the comic book store?" A look crossed over the lady's face, but it disappeared before Lorelai could figure out what emotion it was, a smile quickly coming back in place.

"Its actually farther down the boardwalk. My son loves going there, so of course I would have to know where it is." Lorelai sighed in relieve, glad that it was still around. After thanking the lady, Lorelai walked out and continued her search for the comic store, face lighting up when she saw it just ahead. The moment Lorelai walked in, the scent of the old pages filled her nose, making her feel at ease. She thought back to Sam, how he was the one who got her into the hobby of comic books. Lorelai loved to read actual books and of course she enjoyed the occasional nerdy movie here and there, but comics were never really her favorite, seeing how there were too many plot lines that she couldn't seem to follow. But the more she visited the store, the more she realized that it had the same atmosphere as a normal bookstore, which made her feel calm enough to scan through the comics.

As Lorelai was running her fingers though the comics, she saw someone freeze. At first she was going to ignore the person, thinking that he was just shocked to see the girl in the comic store, but the longer he stared, the more agitated she became. However, the moment she turned to confront the person, he quickly turned and began to walk out of the store. Even though she didn't see the boys face, Lorelai felt as though she knew him. He had dirty blond hair that was pulled back, and a long colorful jacket blew out behind him as he walked out of the store. Mentally, she knew it couldn't be Sam, but there were too many similarities that she couldn't push out of her mind, at least they were enough to cause her to rush after the boy, just about sprinting down the boardwalk after him. Once they reached the entrance, Lorelai stopped, panting slightly. "Sam!" The boy paused, turning around to face her. Lorelai frowned, eyebrows pulling together. She knew that Sam would have been taller than this boy was by now, but it was worth a try. But when she saw his face, she was more than confused. The boy was Sam, she had no doubt about that much; he had the slicked back blond hair and the bright blue eyes and the fashion sense that was still stuck in the 80's, but there was a problem. He looked exactly as he had 4 years ago when she had left Santa Carla. Now she knew that it was impossible, Sam should had been 18 by now, but this boy in front of her was 14 years old and looked the same as the day that she left. Lorelai took a step back, startled by the persons appearance in front of her. A different boy appeared behind 'Sam', looking over the girl in front of him. She was looking at his brother like she knew him, but Michael knew that that was impossible.

"Can I help you?" Lorelai looked up at the boy, scanning over his features. He was wearing a dark leather jacket and had curly dark hair that looked long enough that if it was straight, it would have fallen into his eyes and over his shoulder, and he had a single earring handing from his left ear. Lorelai shook her head, giving him a small smile.

"No, i'm sorry. I thought he was someone else." The two boys nodded but before they walked off, Lorelai could have sworn she saw something in the younger boys eyes, a recognition of sorts, but he turned before she could dig deeper into the look. Lorelai shook her head, mentally cursing herself for embarrassing herself like that. Lorelai let the boys get some distance before she started walking to the entrance as well so that she could start her walk back to her house. As she began to walk, she saw that the motorcycles that she had past on her way in all had riders now on top of them, each one looking as dangerous as the bikes they were perched upon.

The first bike had a platinum blond rider, dressed in a long leather jacket with a second one underneath, a cigarette perched between his lips and scruff on his face, his icy blue eyes looking over Lorelai as she hesitated at the boardwalk sign, looking over at them. The next rider was tanner then the others there, with long black hair and dark eyes that stared at her intently, his leather jacket open to reveal his toned chest with no shirt. Behind him sat a little boy with shoulder length hair, a small smile on his face as he whispered to the boy Lorelai mistaken as Sam who sat on the bike next to him. 'Sam' Sat behind another blond, though this guy's hair was long, falling down his back, a smirk directed at Lorelai, a mesh shirt under a long coat with white pants. The third rider looked younger, more innocent than the others, with blond curls that fell into his face and green eyes shinning brightly in Lorelai's direction, smile hidden behind his hand he held up to his mouth. The fourth rider was the boy from the boardwalk, though a girl sat behind him. She looked about her age, with slightly tan skin and wild curly long hair and dark eyes, dressed as though she was a gypsy. She looked at Lorelai with something like concern, eyes darting between her and the boys that were staring at her.

Bracing herself, Lorelai took a deep breath before walking past the bikes and the riders, jumping slightly when the bikes jumped to life, causing small laughs to echo through the group. Just as she was almost past all of them, a voice that she recognized as being Sams; she needed to stop thinking of him as her old friend, but she couldn't help it.

"Hey, just to let you know," Lorelai paused, looking past the other riders over at 'Sam', a small smile on his face as he ran his hands through his hair. "My name is Sam, if that makes you feel any better." Before Lorelai could respond, the motorcycles roared past her and disappeared down the street. Lorelai mentally cursed at herself, shaking her head as she leaned against the metal railing where the bikes were just parked. Maybe if she was like other girls, with their revealing outfits and makeup caked on their faces, maybe then she would have had enough confidence to approach the dangerous riders, to flirt with them and sound less crazy when she said that she thought the kid was her long lost friend from her childhood.

Taking a deep breath and pushing thoughts out of her head, Lorelai dusted her pants off and shrugged her shoulders, walking down the same road that they boys just recently drove down. She didn't know what time it was, but she did know that if it was too late, her father would get worried; after all it was the first night that she was back home. But when she walked through the door, silence greeted her; it wasn't a bad silence, it was more of a calming one, and she could only guess that this was what she would come home to, not that she minded. It was better than coming home to a drunk step father or a mother who ignored her.

After taking a quick shower and changing for bed, she made her way into her room, worn out from the days activities. Taking a glance at the bay window, she decided to keep the big windows wide open, letting the soft ocean breeze drift into her room, causing her to shiver in the thin nigh shirt and shorts she wore. Crawling into bed, Lorelai let the sounds of the waves wash over her as she closed her eyes, salt water drifting into her nose and four pairs of different colored eyes flashing through her mind as she started to fall into a deep sleep.

_Authors Note: Incase anyone was confused, I did have Marko's hair as described shorter than it was in the movie. I felt as if it would stand out too much nowadays and he would be the only one who would care enough to sort of follow through with "fashion changes" where as the other boys wouldn't care enough to cut or style their hair differently._


	5. The Next Day

The next day Lorelai woke up with a shiver and an empty house. She had forgotten that Santa Carla got cold, at least when the sun wasn't bright and shinning. Squinting to look out from her window, Lorelai noticed that the sun was just starting to creep out from the horizon and that the sky was lightening with every passing second. Grabbing her phone off of the night stand, she groaned when the digital 6:15 shone into her eyes; she hated waking up early but her body would naturally get up on its own, never letting her sleep for more than a few hours at a time.

Dragging herself downstairs, she saw a note sitting where she had left hers last night, her fathers cursive writing filling the page. Lorelai always loved her fathers handwriting, it was neat and rather larges because of teaching while hers was small and, in her opinion, messy, though people said they loved her handwriting she couldn't understand why. She picked up the note, scanning over the contents in the note. Apparently her father had gotten in very late last night, nearly the morning, slept for an hour or two, before he went back to the university where he taught. Of course, after many apologies in the note for his lack of attendance, at the bottom he wrote that he should be back around noon and they would be able to talk a little more. Lorelai chuckled at the note before leaving it on the counter, enjoying how much her father ranted instead of just getting to the point, it was one of the things that she missed about him. After searching through the kitchen, she settled with making some toast before getting about with her morning routine.

A few hours went by and she had distracted herself for as long as she could. While she never really gone all out while doing makeup, she played around with it to waste time, doing her eyeshadow and actually making wings with her eyeliner, finishing off with some fake lashes; she didn't like the feeling of foundation or concealer on her face and found no point in it if she was just going to sweat it off throughout the day anyhow. After that took her all of an hour, she raided through her closet for an outfit that would match the makeup, going through 3 different ones before she finally settled on a comfortable choice. Even though she knew she should have done something productive, Lorelai found herself sitting on the front porch swing with her drawing pad and some pencils, not really paying any attention to what it was that she was doodling. She wasn't a big drawer, preferring to write if anything, but every so often she would get some artsy vibes and she needed to let it out somehow. A car pulling into the driveway snapped her out of whatever daze she was in, a smiling spreading on her face when she saw her father getting out of the car, looking exhausted but happy. He climbed up the few steps, raising an eyebrow at the drawing pad in her lap. He didn't know that his daughter liked to draw, or that she was even good at it, by what little he could see. "Entertaining with a new hobby I see?" Lorelai looked down at the paper, eyes widening slightly at what she had drawn. It was the four pairs of eyes from her dream, all displaying different types of emotions, and she would bet that if she held it up to those bikers from last night, she would find a match for each sketch she had done. Quickly closing the pad, she hoped up and followed her father inside the house, shaking off the uneasiness she felt when she saw what she had drawn.

"Not really new. I did some people watching last night and I guess a few of them stuck with me." They walked into the kitchen, her father making some coffee while she got out two mugs and the sugar and milk. "What did you have to go to work for?" Her father sighed, rubbing his forehead and looking stressed out.

"Its my students. Everyone is stressing out about the convention and everyone is having so many problems with their presentations and my assistant is in labor so she wont be coming with us." Lorelai began to laugh, she just couldn't help herself. Chris looked at the giggling girl, confused at why she was laughing in the first place."What?" Lorelai began to settle down, taking in some deep breaths before she explained herself.

"I didn't mean to laugh, it just seems like everyone seems to just be falling apart over there! Why don't you ask one of your coworkers to help out? There has to be at least one who is nice enough to spend some time on the convention with you." Chris poured the finished coffee into their cups, each of them making their drinks virtually the same as he thought over who could help.

"Well, I guess I could find someone who could help..." Staring off for a few seconds, he looked over at Lorelai as she took a sip of the coffee, eyes lingering on the notepad. He didn't know if she wanted to talk to him about what had happened to her or if she wanted to be left alone, but he couldn't seem to find the words to ask. Lorelai looked over at her father who seemed uncomfortable and she could only assume he wanted to talk about what happened that caused her to move back in. She waved her hand at him in dismay, and while she knew he wanted to talk to her because he cared, she really didn't feel like dragging it all up, rather she wanted to push it all down and bury away her problems.

"Dad please, I really don't want to talk about it. Im perfectly fine." For emphasis, Lorelai gave her father a smile, and though it didn't reach her eyes, he seemed satisfied enough with it, for now that is. Chris knew how headstrong his daughter could be, and she was just like him in many ways, especially in the aspect of not talking about her feelings. Chris finished his coffee before getting up, stretching his back and causing loud pops to break the silence that settled over them.

"Im going to be late at the university again."He gave Lorelai a worried glance, like she was going to be upset, but she just shrugged, taking another sip of her coffee while staring out the window over the sink.

"I'll probably go down to the boardwalk again. I've missed it so much." She smiled absentmindedly, tapping her nails against the ceramic mug. She really had missed the atmosphere, the bright lights and the smells, there was just something about it that drew her in.

"You should think about getting a summer job there then, I bet a few of the stores are looking for help." Her face lit up as her father talked about it, causing him to laugh. "God, I've never seen a teenager so happy to work." Lorelai rolled her eyes, pushing herself away from the counter with her hip, grabbing her mug and sketchpad in the process.

"Hey, it couldn't be that bad! Besides, it'll give me something to do and I can earn some money so I can buy things." Chris walked down the back hallway towards his office/bedroom, hoping to change into some new clothes, or at least newer then what he had on.

"Well do you want me to drive you? We can spend some quality time on the boardwalk before I gotta go." Lorelai nodded, running up the stairs while yelling back to him.

"Let me just get changed!" As much as she liked her outfit, she figured dressing up even a little bit more would be more ideal if she was looking for a job, even if it was just on the boardwalk she wanted to look nice. She threw on a plain pastel pink shirt and a pair of jeans with sandals, nothing too fancy more more appealing than all of her other outfits. She jumped down the stairs, pulling her long hair into a ponytail, the natural waves cascading over her shoulder when she brushed it forward. Her father was just emerging from the hallway, dressed in a Hawaiian shirt and khakis, causing Lorelai to laugh at his basic dad look he had going on.

The drive to the boardwalk felt nonexistent with how short it was, and while she complained that they should have just walked, her father pocketed the keys, walking onto the wooden planks, stating that his car was starting to lose the salty air scent and this was the only way to get it back, but Lorelai knew it was just an excuse and he was just too tired to walk there and back, not that she blamed him. The boardwalk was different in the daytime than at night. The people consisted mainly on older people and families with younger children instead of teenagers, and the atmosphere seemed more calm and happy rather then mysterious and edgy like it was at were there for maybe 40 minutes before Lorelai stopped infront of the video store, a help wanted sign hanging in the window. She loved movies and she also remembered how kind the lady was from the other night, so she figured that this was her best option, considering every other store seemed slightly off. Telling her father to wait outside, she walked in, smiling a the girl behind the register. They talked for maybe 10 minutes before the lady officially offered her the job; stores on the boardwalk were individually owned so they didn't have to worry about going through official interviews and such, especially not for summer jobs.

"Max is the owner with his wife Lucy, but they don't come in until after dark. They would be the ones to ask about hours. But," The girl riffled through some papers, reading over what looked like a schedule. "You might have to wait a few days, it seems that they left this morning to go out of town. Is that alright?" Lorelai nodded her head before wishing the manager a good day and exiting the store. Her father was waiting just where she left him, leaning against the railing and overlooking the beach. She skipped next to him, a big smile on her face.

"You are now looking at your employed daughter!" Her father cheered, giving her a tight hug before dragging her over to the food section of the boardwalk. They both got some slices of pizza, both eating about four slices before they decided to leave the boardwalk, her father giving her a hard time.

"I've never seen a girl eat so much!" Lorelai pushed her fathers arm, rubbing her stomach.

"Hey! I don't see anything wrong with how much I eat!" They drove back to the house in silence, her father going to the back study to work on a few things, leaving Lorelai to go up to her room, falling on her bed next to the sketchpad that she was using this morning. Glancing over at it, she opened it up to what she was drawing, the eyes all staring up at her. Her fathers voice startled her out of the trance she was in, causing her to drop the pad onto her bed.

"Pumpkin, Im heading out! If you need anything just give me a call and I'll be back in an instant!"

"Alright dad! See you tonight." With a sigh, Lorelai walked over the open windows, sitting on the little couch that was made up on the platform under the window. She heard the front door close before she saw her father walking to the car with his messenger bag thrown over his shoulder, papers nearly falling out of the bag. He changed his outfit, opting for more of the business casual look rather than his dad outfit he was just in. She sat there even after his car disappeared, staring at nothing in particular, mainly just looking at how the trees moved in the gentle breeze, the sun slowly beginning to fall. She finally got up, pulling off her day clothes and pulling on the clothes that she was wearing this morning, enjoying the looser, darker clothes. Looking at herself in the mirror, she smiled lightly, twisting and turning to see her full outfit. She was a bit more daring in this outfit, opting for a deep red crop top and a high waisted, long black flowy skirt, most of her mid-drift exposed. She pulled her hair out of the ponytail, letting her long wavy locks brush against her open lower back, the blonde highlights shinning even brighter since her hair was actually brushed today. Her reflection stared back at her, the pale green eyes shinning brightly back at her. She never really liked her eye color, it seemed a little too unnatural to her; once they were compared to the eyes of a cat and since then, she couldn't think otherwise. Lorelai grabbed her over the shoulder purse, throwing her phone inside before heading out of the house, making sure she had a light on for her return. The sun was just setting, meaning that there was still a slight glow in the air, though it was fading fast. Lorelai wasn't a fan of the dark, not unless she was safely inside, but even that was a bit of a stretch for her. It wasn't like she was scared of the dark, it was more like she was unnerved at unknown; there were things out there that could see in the dark and she really didn't want to meet them.

By the time she made it to the boardwalk, she was happy to see that there weren't as many people crowding the entrance like it was last night, meaning she didn't have to fight her way onto the strip. As she began to walk, her steps hesitated, seeing the bikes parked where they were last night, meaning that the bikers were here somewhere. Shrugging off the strange feeling, she continued her way onto the boardwalk, just wanting to relax and enjoy the night out.


	6. Beach Nights

Lorelai walked along the boardwalk in a slow pace, enjoying the cool breeze that brushed over her bare shoulders and calfs, the only annoying part was that her long skirt would wrap itself around her legs, though that was better then having it fly up on her. She kept close to the shops this night, enjoying the lights warming her skin plus the window shopping that she was getting done was amazing, each shop featuring its own items. She would have rather stayed close to the railing, but it seemed like it was the hot spot for smokers and young couple to make out, two things that she really didn't want to be around at the moment, though she would pick the smokers over the couples. Lorelai thought back to the few times that she actually tried a cigarette, the first two times she was drinking with her friends and she really didn't know what she was doing, but the other two times it was to just calm her nerves down.

As she walked farther down the boardwalk, Lorelai heard music playing softly ahead, a gentle cheerful tune that didn't quite fit in on this boardwalk. She paused at the carousel at the end of the boardwalk, eyes widening at the small ride. When she saw it during the day, she didn't even know that it still worked and if she was being honest it was a bit crappy looking, but at night it was absolutely beautiful. While it was a little run down, the paints on the horses were faded and chipped to where they almost pastel colors, the metal poles were shinny from the wear they acquired over the years, the music playing softly over the roar of people yelling and laughing.

It took the ride two full rotations before she finally noticed the bikers from the night before, all of them moving on the rides platform, eyeing people as they laughed and swung between the horses. Honestly, Lorelai was shocked at how graceful they appeared as they moved, each fully aware of their bodies, of the balance that they had; she knew that if she so much as took a small step she would go flying to the ground. She was able to look at the boys now more closely since their eyes weren't on her every move. Hell, they didn't even know that she existed at the moment, which allowed her the room to breath, unlike the night before where she felt trapped by their gazes, the same ones that she could only meet in the sketches that she had done this morning. Taking a small glance around, she noticed that every girl around her age were staring openly at the boys, all of them dressed in barely there clothing, something that caused her to roll her eyes at before settling at the boys again, though not being too obvious at looking. Or at least she hoped it wasn't too obvious. There were just four of them at the moment, and each one was more complex than she first imagined now that she was able to see them under some lights.

The platinum blond with blue eyes had a predatory smirk on his face, those icy eyes of his scanning past every person slowly, calculating, almost as if he was trying to figure something out. There was a sense of power that radiated out from him, causing the people he pasted to straighten up and move to let him move past them. The second boy behind him was almost the exact opposite in appearance; his dark hair flowed out behind him in straight strands, his dark eyes matching his frown on his face. Instead of power, he gave off a sense of intimidation, a look of fear crossed peoples faces when they saw him, they averted their eyes as to not accidentally meet his. The blond behind him had long, wild locks of hair, and though it looked like it wasn't brushed, it was maintained, like he styled it that way. He smirked at every girl that he passed by, winking a blue eye that caused them to blush and laughed crazy at every guy he passed who glared, overall his joy just spread to everyone he was near, even if he was being a dick to some. The last one had longish curly blond hair and seemed the most hesitant out of the others. He stayed towards the back of the group, trying not to stand out from everyone else in any way. His green eyes were shifting between peoples faces and then over his friends, smiling behind his thumb whenever the wild blond looked back at him but his hand and smile would drop when no one was looking.

Once the ride ended, the boys all jumped off, heading to the opposite side of the ride that Lorelai stood on. They stopped at a group of people that she could just make out as being the same few from the night before, or at lease she assumed they were, she was too short to really see over the sea of people. Once the crowd cleared slightly, she moved closer to the ride's surrounding railing. Inwardly, she told herself it was just to admire the ride closer, but she knew that it was a lie; in reality, she just wanted to be closer to the boys, and that thought scared her. She never even spoke to them before and they sort of frightened her, but for some reason she felt drawn to each one. She noticed that the brown curly hair boy from last night was leaning closer to the platinum blond, mouth moving with a small smile. Sadly, Lorelai couldn't read lips, so she wasn't able to make out what he was saying, but the instant he moved away, all four boys looked over in her direction. Instantly she let out a small curse, ducking her head to avoid their confused gazes. Looking up slightly, she saw the four boys starting to make their way over, causing Lorelai to gulp and turn tail, disappearing through the small groups that seemed to invade the surrounding area. It was times like this one where she enjoyed being short. Behind her, she heard people complaining and shouting out curses as the boys tried to make their way towards where she once stood, though their complains quickly died out when they saw who had pushed past.

The boys didn't understand why they were trying to follow the girl in the first place, but there was something about her that intrigued them. Of course, they were accustomed to girls staring at them, so when they caught her looking the first night, they didn't think anything about it. When she walked past them, they couldn't hide the fact that she did smell amazing, but they had already fed for the night so they didn't even bother wasting their time. But ever since they last saw her, they couldn't get her out of their minds, to the disliking of the others in their group. She didn't seem scared of them like most people were, although she did avoid eye contact they could feel it was more out of hesitation then anything, and she was the only girl they had met in a long time that didn't throw herself at them, Star was the last girl that hadn't done that. They just wanted to figure her out.

Lorelai finally made it out of the throng of people, and she took a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves from being around that many people at once. She wasn't claustrophobic, and while she did enjoy company, Lorelai liked being alone more than anything. Ever since her stepfather began scaring off her friends and she was labeled a freak, Lorelai folded in on herself, pushing away anything that got too close; it was easier then trying to pretend to be someone else for the sake of others. She made her way down the boardwalk steps, pausing to slip off her sandals and pick them up before she dug her feet into the soft sand, moving down the length of the beach. She did enjoy the beach, she just hated how the sand always seemed to follow her home. The sand was still warm from the days sun, but as she got closer to the water, the sand became easier to walk on and cooler, causing her to shiver slightly, especially when a small wave crashed on the shore, causing the water to rush towards her, the ice cold feeling just brushing against her feet. Lorelai moved out of the waters reach before sitting down, watching the reflection of the full moon ripple on the water. As long as the clouds didn't block the moon and the bonfires were still going strong, there was enough light for Lorelai to stay sitting, just enjoying the peaceful mood and the small breeze that brushed against her skin. She had missed this over the years.

The boys finally emerged from a group of tourists, frowning when they didn't see the girl from before anywhere in sight. "Damn, she's good." David glared over at Paul before looking around again trying to spot where she could have gone. He did have to agree with Paul, she was good if she was able to disappear from them. A laugh rang out from behind them, Sam coming through the crowd followed by Micheal, Star, and Laddie.

"Tough luck boys. When she wants to disappear, you won't be able to find her." Dwayne frowned over at the blond boy that stopped next to him while David raised an eyebrow, a smirk forming slowly. It was only the second time that he had seen this girl, and while he did find it strange how Sam talked to her the first night, he brushed it off as friendliness. But he might have been wrong to assume that.

"Sam, how do you know her?" The smile fell from the younger Emerson's face as Davids eyes scanned him over. He should have just kept his mouth shut, but no, he just had to make a joke at the guys expense. Quickly, Sam looked away before moving closer to the railing of the boardwalk where no one was at, trying to avoid Davids question. The group followed, everyone now interested in what the boy was hiding from them. Micheal looked down at his younger brother, moving to get between him and David. He never knew Sam to keep a secret from him, and while she was shocked, he knew that Sam would tell him now rather than David.

"Sammy, what is it? You can tell us." The other boys all echoed Micheal in a mocking tone, all except David who was still staring down the boy. Star stood behind Micheal with Laddie, her dark eyes looking back and forth between the Emerson's and the boys. Ever since Sam and Micheal joined them, there hasn't been any tension, which surprised her considering Sam and a few other boys tried to kill them all. And after Micheal became a full vampire, Sam, Laddie, and herself followed suit, bonding them all together. But this wasn't good, David and the others didn't like it when there were secrets in the group. Sam looked around at everyone, eyes flickering between wanted to talk and wanting to just run.

"Well, you see, about that..." Sam was planning on lying, he didn't want to risk Lorelai's safety because of him, but one look in Davids icy eyes and he couldn't stop himself from spilling. "I may have met her before yesterday. Like, maybe... a few years ago." Sam flinched when David slammed a fist against the boardwalk railing, causing it to shake and splinter slightly where he had hit it.

"You what! How could you be that stupid." David ran a gloved hand through his hair, closing his eyes out of frustration before lowing his voice, hoping that his earlier outburst hadn't gained them any attention. "Did she recognize you?" Heavy silence followed, which was more than enough of an answer for him. David opened his eyes, pulled out a cigarette and lit it up, trying to think of what they were going to do. This is why he told Max it wasn't a good idea to add more to the group, it became harder to keep their secret. He looked out over the water, staring at the moons reflection in thought.

"David, what are we going to do?" Marko frowned, chewing on his thumb nail out of frustration. They had just come back to Santa Carla, and he really didn't want to leave again. David exhaled some smoke, shaking his head. He knew that they should tell Max, but he would rather spare them all from his wrath.

"The only thing we can do. Get rid of her." Sam was about to protest but his complaints died before they even left his mouth when David glared over at him. Sam knew that if they found out about her she was dead, but still he couldn't help but feel angry that this was their solution. After a few moments of internal and external debating, they decided that by tomorrow, the girl would be dead and they would be able to go about with their lives.

Lorelai took out her phone when she felt the vibration of a text, groaning when she saw that it was close to midnight. Her father must have just gotten home because he texted her, wondering where she was. Responding with a quick text of 'Be right home', she got up, brushing the sand off of her skirt before making her way back towards the boardwalk. Once on the wooden planks, she dusted off her feet before sliding the sandals back on. She honestly hadn't even noticed how much time had passed, and she was surprised that she wasn't tired considering the time. When she got to the entrance, she paused only long enough to make sure that the bikers weren't there; she wasn't keen on the idea of running into them after they caught her staring. She sighed in relieve when she saw that their bikes were still parked, but the boys themselves were no where in sight. Lorelai quickly walked past them, sparing a few seconds to observe them before continuing her walk home. She told herself that tomorrow she was going to stay home, if anything just to avoid the bikers, but she knew inwardly that she would be back on the boardwalk the next night, she just couldn't help herself.


	7. The First Meeting

Lorelai walked along the beach, enjoying the darkness and silence for once. The silence meant that she was alone, and while that was the case for most of her life, she would have music or the tv playing on the background or even have the noises outside to keep her company. And the dark always creeped her out, mainly because she didn't know what was out there, the inevitable was what frightened her the most. Normally, she despised both, but today was a particularly bad day for her. She woke up from a nightmare at 2 in the morning about her stepfather and his friends, and by then her heart was racing so much that she couldn't fall back asleep. Then at work, she had to deal with the rudest customers she had ever seen and pretend like it was alright that they were yelling at her for no reason.

She hadn't been to the beach in a few weeks, mainly because she wanted to spend some time with her father before he left for his meetings with his students. But now that he was going to be gone for a few weeks for the convention and she had a bad day, she decided that she needed a good beach night; she deserved it after all the crap she had endured this past week. If her father had been home, she could have ranted to him while stuffing her face with greasy pizza (her fathers solution for any problem was to eat the worst food possible), but he had left early this morning and talking about her issues over the phone just never settled her enough. It was a cooler night then when she was last here, the wind was blowing her long hair away from her face, thankfully, and luckily the dress she was wearing was long enough that it wasn't going to blow upwards. While she was lost in thought, she hadn't realized that there was someone just infront of her, standing and just staring at the ocean, their silhouette dark against the light color sand, dark enough that she couldn't make out who it was. She was going to walk around them as to not interrupt their deep thoughts, but as she got closer, she stopped in her tracks, eyes widening. It was one of those bikers, the one with the curly hair and green eyes. In her opinion, he was the least threatening out of them all in appearance, with his rounder face and the gentle blond curls that fell into his eyes, but he gave off the same vibe that the others had, the one that made people avoid them at all costs. She was considering on just passing right by him, but while the others weren't anywhere in sight, she didn't want to risk running into them seeing how they normally travel in a pack, not while her night was just finally getting better. So Lorelai settled with just walking back the same way she came, although right before she turned, the boys green eyes flashed up towards her, causing her to look down and turn quickly, the thin material of her dress billowing around her legs. '_Great, just what I was trying to avoid. So much for a better night now.'_

Marko decided to go to the beach while the others were on the boardwalk. They hadn't been able to find the girl that Sam met which was strange; it was like she didn't exist. Days turned into weeks with no sight of the brown haired girl, but they were at the boardwalk every night hoping that she would return. But she didn't come back, and that was really pissing David off, which in turn brought them all into bad moods. Finally, Marko decided to break off from the rest of them, stating that he was going to scan the beach for her and maybe pick off a few drunks. He couldn't stand it when David got into one of his moods, he would glare at anyone that got too close and was rather silent to him and the others. Marko kicked the sand around for a few minutes, taking his frustration out on the ground before he stopped at the waters edge, watching the moons reflection on the water. He was just staring off across the ocean and not really paying attention to his surroundings, mentally complaining about what the big deal was about this girl. Sure, it was a pain that there was a human out there that may or may not know about Sam's lack of aging, but why were they so focused on finding her right now? As a cool breeze blew the opposite direction for the first time that night, he got a whiff of someone who smelled really good, their blood giving off hints of vanilla and lavender, a very warm and unique scent, a very familiar one at that. He looked up, just catching the girl in question as she turned. He had to admit, she was very pretty in the moonlight more enchanting than when he first saw her, her light hair shinning and her white dress moving in the wind. He almost laughed out loud when he thought about the woman in white ghost stories he used to hear as a kid, her image almost matching what he thought the ghosts would look like.

Lorelai didn't hear the boy move, but out of the corner of her eye she saw him matching her stride on her right side, a long earring dangling from his ear, reflecting light from the boardwalk back at her. "I think I've seen you around before, haven't I?" Lorelai nodded, though she focused her gaze back to the sand, not brave enough to meet the boys eyes. She could feel his stare boring into the side of her face and could practically hear the smirk from the tone of his voice. Normally, she wouldn't care and she quite enjoyed making eye contact, but these bikers, they triggered something inside of her that tore her in two directions: one screamed for her to run away and the other yearned for her to talk to them, to be near them, and so far she had been listening to the former.

" Yeah, I think I remember you and your friends. You guys have the really nice bikes." She knew that being alone with this guy probably wasn't the best of her ideas seeing how most of the Santa Carla residents kept their distance from the boys, but she knew that if she screamed, someone would have to hear her, right? When he chuckled, she felt her cheeks get warm and instantly she began to panic . Why would she bring up the damn bikes.

"You like motorcycles?" Lorelai sighed and shook her head.

'_Great, way to embarrass yourself_.' "Not in the slightest. I just think they look… cool?" '_Cool? Really? Just perfect, why don't you dig yourself a bigger hole._' Marko watched the girl closely. He could feel her emotions running wild as she had a small mental conversation with herself. He and the boys were good at reading emotions and feeling thoughts, they could feel the small after-waves that humans would let out, but this girl? They came off of her like tidal waves, as if she had so much emotion built up and her thoughts were screaming, they were just pouring out of her. And while her face did show off most of her emotions, she only revealed what she wanted, not nearly showing everything that she was feeling, which intrigued Marko; not many humans were good enough to put up masks around them. "I really don't know much about bikes. One of my old friends repaired them and I would just sit there and try not to touch anything. She attempted to teach me about them once and it went into one ear and out the other. God Im sorry, I must be rambling and annoying you." Marko shook his head, smiling behind his thumb that was raised to his mouth, a nervous tick that he couldn't kick when he was around strangers.

"Not at all. Did you say old friend? Are you new to Santa Carla?" Marko knew that she wasn't new necessarily, but he also knew that there really wasn't any point to get to know her too well because she would be dead by the end of the night, just like David said. But there was something in the back of his head, something that he was trying to ignore and he knew the others felt it too; he really wanted to get to know her for some reason. He could have killed her the moment that he saw her turn her back towards him, but he didn't, instead he began to walk with her and talk.

"Well, I'm newer. I grew up in Santa Carla, so did my parents. But I moved away to New Jersey with my mom a few years ago." She stopped herself from spilling the rest to this handsome stranger, best not to scare him away with her baggage just yet. Or maybe that was the better option, get him to walk away from her because of her past problems, then she wouldn't have to worry about these bikers anymore. Marko raised an eyebrow, looking over at her now sullen face.

"And now you're back?" Marko didn't know why he cared, but at her sudden mood change he felt concerned, the sadness and fear hitting him hard. She waved her hand at the question, trying to dismiss it entirely; she wouldn't even talk to her father about these things, let alone this stranger. They had walked the stretch of the beach and were now on the steps of the boardwalk.

"It really doesn't matter." Marko looked around, catching the eye of David who was standing down the boardwalk from them, watching with a frown. He nodded, causing David to lean over to the other guys to tell them that Marko had the girl that they were trying to find. When Lorelai saw Marko looking off to the side and saw the others, she shook her head, beginning to walk backwards away from the curly haired boy infront of her. "You know what, I really have got to be going. It was nice to actually talk to you." She turned, walking away into a crowd of people. Marko of course heard her, but he didn't really pay any attention until the scent of her blood drifted away. He looked around, cursing silently under his breath. He knew fully well by now that if this girl wanted to disappear, she could do it with no problem.

Lorelai didn't want to handle all of the boys at once, she was barley able to handle a conversation with one of them without making a fool of herself. So she just slipped away into the crowd of the boardwalk, hoping to get away from them before they came over to where she and Marko were standing. Taking a quick glance behind her, she wanted to make sure that none of them had followed her, but of course she ran into a broad chest, almost knocking herself backwards to the ground. If it wasn't for the fact that the person grabbed her around her waist, she would have been sprawled out on the wooden ground. Her breath was knocked out of her and her eyes were closed tight, bracing herself for the fall that never happened.

"Whoa girl, don't go falling for me just yet." Lorelai's eyes flew open, taking in the person who had caught her. It was the wild blond biker that she had ran into, which startled her because the last time that she saw him, he was with the others who were walking over to her and the curly blond. The wild blond was laughing at her misfortune, dark blue eyes sparkling, and while she wanted to be angry that he allowed her to walk into him, she couldn't help but laugh lightly at her own clumsiness, though she was still confused on how she could have possibly ran into him.

"Im sorry, I didn't mean to run into you." She looked up at his face, at his bright smile and shinning deep blue eyes and realized that he was even more attractive up close than she first thought when she saw him at a distance . The moment that their eyes met, the blonds smile turned into more of a smirk and his eyes shone with mischief. Lorelai was silent for a few moments as they remained locked in a stare before she cleaned her throat, tapping one of his hands that were still locked around her waist. She wasn't a huge fan of others touching her, especially not since what happened before she moved back to Santa Carla. "Um, excuse me…." He shook his head before smiling, and instead of letting her go, to her dismay, he wrapped a single arm around her shoulder, pulling her even closer to his side and forcing her to walk slowly through the crowd with him back to the group she was just running from.

She was tense under his arm, Paul could feel her stiffness at the contact they shared, which only made it more fun for him. Normally, girls threw themselves at him, forcing him to throw an arm around them in some way, but this girl didn't seem to want to be anywhere near him, let alone touch him. It was a nice change of pace honestly, not that he would say anything out loud.

"Oh don't worry about it chica, you can stay right here next to me." Lorelai laughed loudly, followed by her hand quickly flying to her mouth in shock. She never laughed loudly in public, especially not in tight crowds like this one which caused the people around them to glance over at them once before dismissing the pair. She wasn't laughing at his attempt at humor, she was more laughing at the fact that he had the guts and the nerve to keep holding her and say something like that when clearly she wasn't comfortable. But Lorelai had to admit, she could totally get used to blonds arm hanging over her shoulder, keeping her close, but not right now. Besides, she would never give him the satisfaction. After clearing her throat and trying to forget her embarrassingly loud outburst, she looked back up at the grinning blond, raising an eyebrow.

"Ok, i'll bite. Who exactly am I supposed to be staying right next to?" The blond chuckled darkly at something Lorelai said, almost like there was an inside joke in something that she said, but after re-thinking the sentence through, she couldn't find anything she said to be funny.

"My name is Paul. But I think the more interesting question would be what is your name?" She hummed, slowing lifting his hand off of her shoulder, allowing it to drop between them. Paul pouted, placing a hand over his heart in mock hurting, though his blond eyes were full of humor.

"I don't think that I am going to tell you that." Paul side-stepped infront of her, causing Lorelai to hesitate slightly, but followed him nonetheless as he walked backwards, somehow skillfully dodging the people behind him.

"And why won't you tell me?" Lorelai knew that if she was too so much attempt to do what Paul was doing, she would have fallen on her own ass. But with Paul, he was graceful almost in his movements, extremely light on his feet despite how tall he was. People all but parted away from the blond when they saw him approaching their direction, making Lorelai shake her head. '_All the more reason you shouldn't be by these guys. No one else wants to get near them'_

"Well you know what they say, don't give strangers your name." Paul smirked, but it quickly fell when Lorelai raised a finger at him. "And no, just because I know your name does not mean you aren't a stranger, but I admire your attempt." Lorelai hadn't even noticed that she and Paul had stopped walking until she heard the quiet laughter around her, causing her heart to drop as her green eyes flickered around at the group that she stood in the middle of. She glared over at Paul, who returned her look with a bright smile, acting innocent with a small shrug.

"I thought that you might like to meet some of my friends. That way we wouldn't be considered strangers." Lorelai cursed the blond infront of her for leading her to the group she had been trying to avoid before shifting the blame onto herself; she should have known better than to let the attractive biker lead her over to the rest of the guys.

Lorelai's eyebrows pulled together as she dropped her eyes to the wooden boardwalk, letting out a frustrated sigh. '_To hell with this day.'_


	8. The Game

David looked over the girl that Paul had brought over, raising an eyebrow at her appearance. There wasn't anything too special about her if he was being honest, she didn't look much different than the other girls that fawned over them. Her light colored hair fell down over her shoulders, hiding most of her face from them as she was looking down at the ground, and her pale dress billowed in the wind, a silver anklet flashing in the lights whenever the hem of the dress flew up. All this work and frustration over this pathetic human; he was going to kill the younger Emerson the moment he saw him for causing this nuisance. Even though it was a pain in the ass trying to find the girl, at least it was something different to do. The 80's were his and the boys prime, when Max decided to expand on their family, it was the most entertainment they had in years, but the last 30 years dragged on in the same boring pattern every night: cause trouble at the common hangout spots of whatever city they moved to, lure unexpecting girls in, and try to have a bit of fun. But each nigh ended with the same dull ending, it just wasn't _fun_ anymore. And while this hunt was slightly better, he sneered at the girl who wasn't looking up at them, knowing that it was going to be the same ending again.

"So, are you going to give me your name now?" The girl let out a chuckle, causing the sneer on Davids face to drop as she lifted her head, raising an eyebrow at Paul who was standing next to him. Her eyes were almost an unnatural color, a green so pale that it was almost a yellow color.

"Just because I am by your friends doesn't mean that you still aren't a stranger." Lorelai didn't know what got into her, but a sudden wave of confidence washed over her, allowing herself to be cocky with the wild blond who was laughing infront of her. She looked over to the biker who stood next to him and that sudden confidence quickly left her body, leaving her feeling cold in his icy blue gaze. Out of all of the bikers, he was the one that creeped her out the most, no, not creeped, scared her was more like it. Paul bounced around just out of her line of sight, allowing her to break the gaze of the blond with the light blue eyes.

"Well then, let's get you introduced to everyone." He moved over to the curly blond from the beach who smiled at her from behind his hand, green eyes shinning now in the lights of the boardwalk. "This is Marko," The longer Lorelai stared at him, the quicker she realized that, while he did appear to be the more innocent looking one in this wild bunch, his eyes shone in a way that made her rethink that; there was definitely something hidden behind his gazes and smiles. Paul then pointed to the dark haired guy who was standing behind her, his dark eyes looking almost bored to be there. "Thats Dwayne," Lorelai assumed that this guy had something against wearing shirts, seeing how every time she had seen them, he was always missing the article of clothing, not that she was really complaining. His definitely stood out from the rest of the group, with the dark hair and eyes, the tanned skin, and his quiet nature. Honestly, while he seemed to be the most intimidating, Lorelai figured that he was the one that put her most at ease. She gave him a small nod, which he returned before looking off somewhere down the strip. That left only one member in the group, the platinum blond that sent chills down her spine. "And this is David." He looked her up and down once before a smirk spread across his face, one the made her body scream to run away, his pale eyes locking into hers.

"Isn't it rude that you know our names but we don't know yours?" Something tugged at the back of her mind and she found herself opening her mouth to respond, but she shook away the feeling quickly, smiling brightly back at him.

"As I told Paul, I don't give my name to strangers." She saw something waiver behind his eyes, something that she couldn't fully read, but she looked away, smiling at Paul who was chuckling. She was going to say her name, only seconds away from it really, and she didn't know why. There was something about David that threw her off.

David looked over the girls head at Dwayne, who met is gaze in a knowing way. He should have been able to get the girl to spill her name in seconds, but somehow she pushed away his mind manipulation, something that humans shouldn't be able to do, at least not easily. He could feel her thoughts rolling off of her, a mixture of anger and frustration and intimidation, but on the surface, she was laughing along with something that Paul had said, a smiling brightly in place and her eyes not revealing how she truly felt.

He also noted that every time Paul would move closer to her, she would take a step or two away from him, not wanting to be touched. Most girls that were drawn in to them were all but throwing themselves at them, or at least flirting, but this one acted as though she was talking to any other person.

Lorelai ducked once more out of the wild bonds arm that was resting over her shoulder, shaking her head with a frown. "Well, while it was nice to meet you all, I really do have to get going…" She turned to leave, but Dwayne was blocking her path away from them, tall and silent, dark eyes staring down at her.

"Oh the night is young! Where do you possibly have to go?" Paul finally managed to get his arm onto her shoulders, pulling her close to his side. He was right, even though it was dark outside, she knew that it couldn't have been past 9 yet, and even to her the excuse sounded weak. Lorelai let out a sigh, shaking her head as she looked back down, letting Paul keep his arm around her for the time being. She seriously had a bad day, and while she was torn between walking the beach to cool off or curling up in her pajamas and having a good cry, she knew that neither of those two things would make her feel better, but they were better then trying to put on a good face. She glanced up at Paul, shrugging her shoulders.

"Honestly? Ive just had a shitty day and I want to be alone." Paul tugged at her hair that fell into her face, causing Lorelai to look up at him with a frown, swatting at his hand to get him to stop.

"Nah, I say you hang with us for a while and if you don't start feeling better, then you can leave."

Lorelai glanced up in hesitation at the others, Marko being the only one that gave her a smile in return, the other two staring off to who knows where.

"When you say 'hang with us' who exactly is the 'us' you refer to?" Paul laughed, the vibrations going right through her, though in a way it made her feel calmer.

"Marko and I obviously! The other two will just drag you down again." Before she could protest, Paul began dragging her away, Marko joining her on the other side as she was dragged down the boardwalk. She looked behind her at David and Dwayne, both of which were staring at her with amused looks as she called for someone to stop the two blonds from stealing her away. While she didn't want to be alone with the others, she knew for a fact that she wouldn't be able to keep up with the two blonds that each had a hold on one of her arms.

Dwayne shook his head as the three disappeared out of sight, leaning against the railing of the boardwalk as he did so. She was tiny and fragile looking, he knew that any of them could easily snap her in two, so why were they entertaining her. David took out a cigarette from the pack in his pocket, lighting it and taking a few drags before letting out a chuckle, causing Dwaynes dark eyes to meet his. "I think I have a new plan for this girl. She's not scared of us nor is she begging for one of us to whisk her away somewhere," he waved his hand off in the distance, motioning to nothing in particular. "And we've been bored lately. I say we have some fun." Dwayne raised an eyebrow, not liking the look that was sparking in Davids eyes.

"What about Sam? She knows about him." David laughed, looking through the crowd for his next meal.

"She knows of him. It'll be easy to persuade her into thinking it's not really him." Dwayne knew better than that; it wasn't going to be as easy as David said, hell, he didn't even get her to say her name when he was something off about this girl, and if Max found out that they were keeping her alive for fun, he would surly rip their heads off. "Besides, it will teach him a lesson for befriending a human."

Lorelai all but fell onto one of the benches, a smile plastered o her face and she could almost feel the rats-nest that had formed in her hair. The two blonds had taken her on the largest coaster on the boardwalk, against her will of course.

Lorelai had tried to explain to Paul that she had a fear of heights but it went in one ear and out the next, so when she begged Marko to not put her through this torture, she saw his smile grow wider, something flashing behind his green eyes, something that made her realize that maybe he wasn't as innocent as he seemed. She was sure that she was going to pass out when the ride started up the giant hill, she could feel her breath shortening and her head began to swim, but the moment that they dropped and she grabbed onto both boys tightly, she found that instead of blacking out, she was screaming with joy.

Paul climbed up on the bench, choosing to sit on the back rest while Marko sat next to her, raising an eyebrow at her. "Wasn't that bad, huh?" Lorelai laughed, trying to smooth out her hair, her fingers getting snagged in the knots.

"Ok, maybe it was fun. But that still doesn't mean that i'm not pissed at you for dragging me on that death trap." Paul ruffled her newly straightened hair, causing her to mumble out of annoyance.

"Come on girl, we wouldn't do anything that'll get you hurt." Lorelai found her leaning back comfortable on the bench, settled between the two. She felt at ease with these strangers, like she had known them for her whole life. But as her eyes flickered out to the sea of people on the boardwalk, she noticed that none of them got too close to where they were seated and eyes flashed over them quickly before darting away, fear in most of the looks she manage to catch. These guys weren't her friends, not yet at least, so that meant she shouldn't be this eager to lower her guard around them. Lorelai smacked Pauls knee, laughing slightly at his confused look.

"My name isn't girl." Marko slung his arm around her shoulders, causing her to jump at the unexpected touch.

"But we don't know your name because somebody is too stubborn to tell us." She could feel the heat rising to her face; of course they couldn't call her by her name, she hadn't given it to them.

"Comfy are we?" Lorelai stiffened at the sound of Davids voice, head turning to see both him and Dwayne emerging from a large crowd. She shifted a little, trying to scoot away from Marko but his arm only tightened around her shoulders, keeping her in place next to him.

"Not exactly. Im more of a fan of personal space but it seems that these two lack that concept." After a few more attempts, she wiggled out of Marko's grasp, causing him to frown in disappointment as she stood, facing the group. "Now I really have to get going, I have work in the morning." She raised a finger at Paul as be began to protest, shaking her head. "No, you owe me at least a good nights sleep after forcing me on that 'ride'."

"But you had a good time!" Lorelai couldn't argue with him, she did have a good time. If she had been forced on the roller coaster by anyone else, she would have vowed never to speak to them ever again. But with Paul, a smile graced her face on its own accord, his bubbly personality strongly infectious. And Marko, he couldn't stay mad at him, with his curly hair and bright green eyes. She shrugged, trying to look indifferent at his comment, but she couldn't stop the smile from reacher her eyes.

"Will we see you tomorrow?" That question wiped the smile from her face. Facing David, she wondered what her answer was going to be. Although she hung out with two of the four boys, she hadn't realized that they wanted to see her again and now that she was faced with the option, did she want to see them again? Getting boys attention was never Lorelai's strongest asset, they either ignored her or only wanted one thing. But for some strange reason, not just one, but four attractive guys wanted her attention, and that made her tingle with fear and excitement. Before she realized it, she felt her head moving without her consent, nodding as an answer, causing David to smirk, as if he knew what her answer was going to be before she did. "Good." Something dark flashed in his icy blue eyes, but the look quickly faded before she could figure what it was, leaving er to think that she had just imagined it. With a wave, Lorelai turned to leave, pausing once she was only a few steps away."Forget something?" Lorelai smirked over her shoulder, meeting Davids cold stare with one of her own.

"Yeah I did. My name is Lorelai Green." With that said she turned, walking away into the crowds that still lingered on the boardwalk. She felt giddy on the inside and realized almost instantly that those boys somehow made her bad mood disappear. The rest of the walk home was a peaceful one under the stars. A smile was plastered on her face as she though about tomorrow and how she would see them again.


	9. The Dream

So finally, the chapter is finished! Thank you for all being so patient, I appreciate it greatly! Honestly, I can't believe how many people have favorited the story so far, I was just writing this for entertainment but now that I see people like it, it inspired me so much! I was tempted to separate this into two separate chapters so I could update faster but the more I typed, the more I realized that separating it up would be a mood crusher. So for the new year, its an extra long chapter! Enjoy!

_Running, that's all that she could think about doing._

_Her chest heaved and she gasped for air, sweat pouring down her face and across her body, but she didn't stop, not even when her lungs screamed at her, not even when her throat felt raw from trying to suck in as much air as possible. She didn't know where she was, the streets were dark and not even the moon was out, besides, she couldn't well stop to look at street signs. Lorelai didn't know why she was running, but her legs pushed her forward faster and faster, obviously trying to get away from something. She turned, ducking away into a small alley and cowering next to a large dumpster. She tried to calm her breathing as to not draw attention to herself from whatever was following her. As Lorelai began to catch her breath, she began to think about what was happening. She didn't remember anything chasing her when she was walking home from the boardwalk; hell, the last thing that she remembered was crawling into bed, meaning she shouldn't even be on the street at all, so why was she here now? She felt the back of her neck tingle and something dropped in her stomach, causing her to hold her breath and remain still. While she didn't hear anything, it was almost like she knew whatever was chasing her was there, standing just on the other side of the dumpster looking for any sign of her. Lorelai could hear her heart thumping in her own ears, she could feel the uneven pounding in her chest, and for a second she could have sworn that the thing chasing her could hear it too, but she pushed the thought away quickly; there was no need to scare herself more then she already was. She wasn't sure that she was going to be able to hold her breath for much longer, and just before she let out all the air she was holding, she heard retreating footsteps leaving her hiding spot. Giving it a few more seconds, she let out a ragged breath, closing her eyes tightly when she felt tears welling up. She felt defeated and utterly exhausted, like she had been running for hours. _

_Taking a moment to herself, she allowed a few tears to roll down her cheek before she swiped them away and opened her eyes. No, she wasn't going to just sit here and let herself feel this way, not again. Standing on wobbly legs, Lorelai moved slowly out of the alley, looking around for whoever was chasing her, only moving once she realized that she was alone in the darkened street. As she began walking, rain began falling from the black sky, but instead of soaking her, the scenery began to melt around her, houses distorting and muted colors blending together until a new picture began to shape in front of her. That's when Lorelai began to realize that she was, in fact, in her bed, and this was just a dream, or rather a nightmare. But even with that fact echoing her head, it still didn't make her feel any better, if anything it only terrified her more because she knew that she wouldn't be able to wake up until the whole thing was finished. _

_Lorelai stumbled forward, meaning to walk down the water-smeared street but instead caught herself on a closed door. She looked around quickly, feeling her heart begin to race and she let out a small whimper as the distortion faded, revealing that she was in her bedroom in New Jersey, the one she thought she had left behind. Everything was still dark, and colors muted, but that didn't scare her as much as it should have. What did frighten her was how still everything seemed, how quiet the house sat for once, the calm before the storm. Against her better judgement, Lorelai felt herself open the door and walk down the flight of stairs, her feet moving on their own accord. The whole house seemed empty, and for a second, when she found herself alone in the Livingroom, she felt a small smile form on her face._

'_I'm safe….' It was like that thought triggered something, because the moment the last word ended, screaming erupted from all around her, shadows danced along the walls and suddenly her stepfather was in front of her. A scowl was on his face and an empty bottle was in one of his hands, his knuckles white from how hard he gripped the neck of the glass._

"_You are worthless, a slut just like your mother!" She flinched away from his harsh words, taking a small step away from the stench of beer that lingered out of his mouth and off of his being. The closer he got to her, the farther she backed up until she was in the kitchen, trapped in the corner that the counter made. The moment her stepfather crossed into the kitchen after her, his face began twisting, changing into someone else. She felt something cool in her hands, and when she looked down, she saw that it was a pair of scissors, the same that she had used on her last night in the house. When she turned to face her stepfather, she saw it was now the man standing painfully close to her, a cruel smirk and empty eyes staring her in the face._

_"Did you think you could get away that easily?" He stroked her face with his hand, grabbing her underneath her jaw and holding her tightly. Lorelai tried to scream out, but when she opened her mouth, nothing came out. She threw her hand out at him, the one gripping the scissors tightly, hoping to hit him anywhere, but he easily caught her wrist, squeezing tightly until the metal clattered on the tile floor, leaving Lorelai defenseless. "Same old tricks, hm? No, this time, you are going to play nice." Lorelai closed her eyes, not wanting to look at this man any longer. This was all in her head, why couldn't she just make it end? _

_Suddenly, the man's hand disappeared from her face and all that was left was a cool breeze that blew her hair away from her face and dried the sweat. When her eyes fluttered opened, she saw that she was no longer in that hell hole, nor was any of the distorting faced men there. Instead, she was back in the street, the exact alleyway she had hid in, standing in the open as if she hadn't even moved. Before she could take a step, however, something grabbed her from behind, throwing her back first against the brick wall. The force of her head hitting the wall made dark spots dance across her vision and caused a dull throbbing sound in the back of her mind. Lorelai blinked rapidly, ridding the spots to reveal a stranger standing in front of her, his face hidden by shadows. The only thing that she could make out was the fact that the person was, in fact, male and that he was not human. The one feature that she could make out were his eyes. They glowed brightly against his shadowed face, a strange orange-yellow color that sent her blood running cold._

_Lorelai shuddered from deep within her bones, her fight or flight instincts kicking in, but the moment she moved to run, his hand grabbed her throat, holding her roughly to the wall. She could feel the sharp nail, almost claw-like, digging into her skin, not quite breaking skin just yet, but her main concern was the pressure on the base of her neck, cutting off her air supply. She gasped, grabbing at the man's wrist to try and break off his grasp, but he just laughed humorlessly at her feeble attempts, knowing that the girl was useless in his grasp. He squeezed his hand tighter, cutting nearly all of the air flow off to her, making the dark sports in her vision appear again. In the back of her mind, she remembered reading somewhere that if you were to die in a dream, you died in real life. There was a small part of her that longed for death, she always had, but now that she was face to face with it, she began rethinking about that choice._

'_No, I'm not going to die from a fucking dream' Suddenly, she lashed out, kicking and pawing at the man's face, but his grasp on her neck only got tighter. With one last effort, she pushed against his chest, causing his clawed hand to be ripped from her throat as he stumbled backwards. Lorelai doubled over, hand on her knees as she panted, gasping for breath as her face flushed from the rush of oxygen returning to her. Her eyes never left the glowing ones that stared back at her, and she could see the shock that had formed in the strange colored orbs. 'Not so easy now, huh?' She smirked at the shadowy figure, her instincts kicking over to fight now that she knew she could have the upper hand and she lunged forward, ready to attack._

Lorelai shot up in her bed, hands flying to her neck as she gasped for breath. She couldn't remember the last time that she had had a nightmare, but as far as she knew, that was the most realistic one that she ever experienced. And while the whole thing was terrifying, she didn't know what frightened her more, the fact that she almost died, or the feeling that she got at the end, the strange surge of power that flowed through her. Something in her was set off, almost like a trigger, and the only thought in her head was how she wanted to hurt the man that was strangling her, and how much she would have enjoyed it as well.

She felt something warm running over her fingers that were clutching her throat, which confused her. She reached over, flicking on the nightstand lamp and looked down at her fingers in horror; blood coated her fingertips and drops slithered down to her palm, leaving behind red streaks. She quickly scrambled out of bed, careful not to get the dark blood on her clothes or her sheets, before running to the bathroom. She craned her neck, staring wide eyed at the four gashes that were along her neck, blood oozing slowly from the cuts. Lorelai grabbed the edge of the counter to steady herself, blood rushed to her head and she could hear a faint ringing coming from behind her ears. She could feel herself on the verge of passing out, having never liked the sight of her own blood, it made her woozy. After closing her eyes and taking a few deep breaths, she managed to finally turn the water on and grab a dark brown washcloth from under the sink, holding it under the steaming water. She winced as the rough cloth hit the gashes, but she knew that she had to get herself cleaned up and stop the bleeding. After dabbing her neck and running the water in the sink red from the caught blood, she managed to get the bleeding to stop and reveal that the gashes weren't all that bad, however she found a different surprise that was hidden under the blood. Dark purple bruises marked her throat, and while they didn't look like fingers, she knew that they came from the same hand that had cut her.

Lorelai, finally free of blood, walked back to her room, pausing at her doorframe. She felt drained, mentally and physically, but she couldn't go back to bed. The thought of laying back down under her heavy blankets was suffocating and every dark corner looked to be hiding a shadow that moved when her eyes drifted past. She knew the real reason why she didn't want to go back into her bedroom, the reason why she found herself wondering down the hallway towards the stairs. She was afraid to close her eyes. Behind her eyelids, even when she blinked, those glowing eyes flared in the darkness of her mind. By the time she had wondered down into the living room, her resolve was set; she would go to the boardwalk, the sea air would calm her nerves and then maybe she would be able to get a few more hours of sleep. So Lorelai grabbed an dark oversized hoodie that she had left drawn over the back of the couch from her earlier adventure in the backyard, slipped her house key into one of the pockets, and shuffled her feet into her beat up slides, flicking on the outside lights before leaving the empty house. She hesitated on the front porch just under the light, waiting a second until the rest of the lights lining the long driveway flared up, casting away the dark shadows. The soft glow was comforting to her, allowing her to get a good view of the road, which she stuck to the middle of, and lighting up some of the woods that lined both sides of the dirt driveway, though the darkness hovered just a few feet past the lights edge, causing Lorelai to shiver and focus on the path in front of her.

Even though the walk was no more than 10 minutes, she had let her mind drift. Lorelai had never heard of a nightmare that would leave someone feeling as empty as she was right now, nor had she heard of a dream that would leave someone physically harmed. Of course, there are the rare instances when someone would die in their sleep, but to have bruises and cuts marring her skin like this, that had to be new. Before she could think about the dream anymore, she found herself on the boardwalk, the lights still on, though not as bright as they normally were, and shops closed up for the night, their gates and doors showing nothing but the darkness within. Only a few lingering souls were still on the boardwalk, mainly drunks or runaways, the occasional junkie shuffling off in a dark corner. This was Santa Carla after all, the small beach town had the reputation of being a haven for runaways and outcasts, and of course it was also known for the shocking large amount of missing person papers that covered every pole and poster board. Her mother had told her that when she was younger, it was known to the locals as the murder capital of the world, a few rebellious teenagers even going as far as to spray paint the words on the back of the Santa Carla welcome sign. That was the main reason that her mother wanted to get out of town, it was not a safe place to start a family and raise children. Growing up, Lorelai would ask her mom about Santa Carla, but every time she would shut her down and never bring the topic up, almost as if something here scared her.

She pulled her hood up over her head, making sure that if anyone took any notice of her, they would see the marks on her neck, not that the people that were on the boardwalk at this hour would think anything of it or of her for that matter. When she walked under the sign of the boardwalk, she instantly looked out for the bikes that normally sat along the fence line, though when she didn't see them, a feeling started to creep up on her: disappointment. Lorelai shook her head and pressed forward, chastising herself. Of course, the guys wouldn't be here at this hour, why would they? She had promised that she would meet them again on the boardwalk tonight, but that didn't happen. After she had gotten off of work, she trudged herself home, reheated the leftover soup she had for lunch, and laid down in her room before getting changed to go out. Lorelai hadn't meant to crash, but it seemed that she slept until late at night before waking up just enough to change into her pajamas before falling back to sleep, though that's when her nightmare began. Feeling the disappointment rising once more, she glared down at the wooden boards, scoffing at her own emotions. Chances are, they never showed up either, they just wanted to mess with her and make her wait on the boardwalk and look like a fool; no, as far as she was concerned, she saved herself from wasting time.

Based on her luck, Lorelai knew that it was only a matter of time before she ran into someone or something, what with her eyes focused on her feet and the hood pulled tightly over her head blocked any sort of view in front of her. But that wasn't the reason why she had run into the person, something had distracted her. Her steps began to slow to almost a crawl and the hair on the back of her neck stood straight up. There it was. That feeling again. A deep shudder from within, a chill running up and down her spine, causing her to close her eyes tightly and attempt to will the feeling away, the same feeling from her dream just before the shadow man attacked her. When she collided with the solid figure, her breath was knocked from her and she went stumbling backwards, keys falling to the ground when she tore her hands from her pockets to steady herself. It was like the person was made of stone, her bumping into him hadn't even caused him to falter in the slightest from his spot.

"Watch where you are going!" The man didn't yell, but his deep voice was demanding, almost a growling sound with a threatening tone laced within his words. Recovering quickly, Lorelai bent down, retrieving her keys from the ground.

"You don't have to be a dick you know. I was going to say sorry." She gave him an equally annoyed response, venom dripping with every word that left her mouth, leaving her stunned. Lorelai knew that she could get a bit snippy, but she never heard her voice hold that much anger in it. Just as she turned away from the guy, a hand found its way onto her shoulder, causing her to stiffen but stop from leaving.

"Lorelai?" She didn't recognize the voice, but clearly the person knew hers. Quickly shrugging the hand off of her, she faced the man, eyes finally lifting to see that it was the dark-haired biker, Dwayne. Instantly she felt bad for snapping at the quiet biker, but at the same time, it was in response to his rude comment. She gave him a meek smile, though he frowned in response, eyes quickly looking over her face in an attempt to figure out what was wrong.

"Hey Dwayne. Sorry about that, I didn't realize it was you." Even though she had the hood pulled tightly over her face and neck, she worried that he would be able to see the marks that were scattered over her neck, his dark eyes calculating and persistent in trying to locate what clearly had her distressed.

Dwayne had not been having a good night, that much was for sure. The moment they all woke up for the night, Paul and Marko had gotten on his nerves with their loud antics. Then when it was clear that the girl was not showing up for the night, David fell into one of his moods. Dwayne knew that David had no control over the human and that meant it wasn't certain that she would show up, but he wouldn't try to tell the blond that, not unless he wanted a fight on his hands. So when the time came to go hunt, he fell away from his brothers, wanting some peace and quiet for the first time that night. Normally after feeding his mood improved, but if anything, he grew more agitated, so when a small figure bumped into him, he couldn't help but snap at them, eyes flaring bright orange. Of course, the small figure hadn't even moved him, but it didn't mean it still didn't annoy him; he was standing perfectly still, watching the water across the beach, and this pathetic human somehow managed to run into him. The person hadn't noticed his eyes nor his face as it began to change, too busy trying to find something that had fallen, but the moment he heard the voice, he shifted back, shocked. Her tone lashed out at him, sharp and clearly pissed off, but there was an edge to her voice, something was off. Lorelai's emotions poured out of her, exhaustion, fear, and anger mixed together and hitting him with a force that almost sent him stumbling backwards; how could a human so small have this much turmoil within her? Then it hit him, the scent of blood lingered around her, both fresh and old. When she finally faced him, he tried to pinpoint its location, but he couldn't figure it out, and the scent of it almost caused him to shift once more. It was sweeter than anything he had ever encountered before.

The longer they stood in the silence, the more uncomfortable Lorelai became, shifting from one foot to the next and playing with her fingers inside of the jacket's pockets. Dwayne's dark eyes finally stopped moving, landing directly on her neck, the one spot that she was trying to hide the most. Something flashed in his eyes, and Lorelai could have sworn that his eyes turned a different color, like the same orange yellow from her dream. But she quickly pushed the thought aside, passing it off as her nightmare still out to scare the crap out of her.

"Are you alright?" Lorelai opened and closed her mouth a few times, thinking over his question. Was she alright? Sure, she was tired, there was no hiding that fact, but mentally she felt drained and physically her neck throbbed with pain and she could tell by the warm feeling sliding down her neck that the cuts were bleeding again. Before she got a chance to lie to Dwayne and tell him that everything was alright, loud laughter echoed from behind her, cutting her off. Lorelai knew that laugh; it wasn't one that you could forget. She mentally cursed herself for staying here to talk; of course, if she was here talking to one of the guys, the others would show up eventually, they were a package deal and right now, she didn't have the energy to handle all four of them, she could barely handle the tamest one of the group.

"Hey Dwayne, what do you have here?" She knew it was Paul and while he was probably just having some good fun, she couldn't help but shiver at the way he said the sentence, almost as if there was some other meaning behind his words. He quickly darted around her, frowning slightly as he looked over her form. She knew he didn't recognize her in the moment, not with her hair tucked neatly into the hood and her body hidden under the large clothing she wore, but when he bent down to look at her face in the lights, a smile bloomed over his face. "Lorelai! Girl where have you been, I missed you today!" He pulled her in tightly for a hug, throwing Lorelai off balance and causing her to stumble into him. She was too surprised to stop him, but after a few seconds of him not letting go, she tapped him lightly on the back, getting him to finally let her go, or at least pull her away from the hug, his hands remained on her shoulders. She laughed slightly as she looked up at the wild blond, though there was no emotion behind it at all and it sounded off, even to her ears.

"Hey Paul. Yeah something came up is all… what are you doing?" As she tried to brush off not showing up on the boardwalk, a serious look had taken over his features and he began to lean in, dark blue eyes hard as he looked over her in the same manner that Dwayne had before. She attempted to move away from his prying eyes, but his hands gripped her shoulders tightly and the more she attempted to move, the closer he got, almost like he was trying to smell something. He was making her feel uneasy and almost instantly he backed away and let go of her shoulders, giving her a tight smile.

"Nothing. Nice outfit by the way." Lorelai glanced down at her outfit, feeling the blood rush to her cheeks quickly. She had on her large hoodie, but she also had on extremely baggy sweatpants that were splattered with various paint colors from over the years, her painting pants she called them, and her old slides exposed her mismatched socks, one a pink color that had flowers dotting the entire sock while the other was grey and had cameras on them.

"Listen, I wasn't planning on coming out tonight. And I can't always look flawless." The smile on his face grew a little more at her sarcastic remark, resembling his normal ones, but the humor didn't reach his eyes. What she saw in them was something else, they looked like they were darker and more distant, an emotion swirling within them that she couldn't quite place.

"Then why are you here if you didn't want to be?" She turned around, David's voice spooking her. She had almost forgotten about the other two that formed this little group when Paul was acting different from his normal happy-go-lucky attitude. The past few times Lorelai had seen David, she would try her hardest to not let him intimidate her, choosing to stare right back at him in those pale blue eyes, but tonight she had been to hell and back. Even if she wanted to, she didn't have the strength or energy to challenge his gaze, so she simply let her eyes fall to her feet, a sigh leaving her mouth.

David was taken aback at her submissive personality. The other times they had talked, she would look him right in the eye, a spark in her strange colored eyes and a challenge clear on her face, but now, her eyes shone with defeat and her face held nothing except exhaustion. He looked quickly over her head to Dwayne, but his gaze was focused on the girl in front of him. While David had only spoken to her a handful of times, between those and the mental connection Paul and Marko shared with him, he could tell that she wasn't one to go down without a fight. But now, as she stood in front of him, it was like he was looking at a shell of the girl he had seen just yesterday.

"I didn't sleep very well. My mind has the scary capability of being dark and demented." Just thinking back to her dreams caused a shiver to crawl up her spine, and she instantly folded in on herself as the chill spread, arms wrapping around her body. After a few moments of silence, she looked up to see David staring intently at her.

"Are you afraid of your dreams?" At first she felt her anger rise within her, thinking that he was making fun of her for being afraid of a dream, but the longer she looked at him, the more she realized that he was being serious when he asked the question and he was patiently waiting for a answer. She looked over at the faces of the others, Paul and Dwayne having moved to be in front of her rather than behind out of respect, which she was grateful for and Marko stood just behind David, light green eyes looking over her for any sign of injury like the others had. She should have been shocked that they all somehow knew something was off, but she guessed they figured it out just by the way she was acting. All of their faces held the same kind of patience that David was expressing, causing that anger to settle within her once more.

"Yes." Lorelai made the mistake of shrugging in an attempt to brush it off nonchalantly, causing pain to soar up her neck which made her hiss out in pain. David reached out instantly to help her from whatever caused her sudden pain, but she flinched away from him, tears welling up in her eyes. "I'm fine! Just… don't, please." She took a few deep breaths before swiping the tears away with the back of her hand roughly. She didn't want them to see the marks, that's what she was telling herself, but Lorelai knew in the back of her mind that there was another reason she didn't want him to touch her. Images of her past flew through her mind, the years of abuse sneaking up on her in the moment she felt the pain and saw a hand reaching out. She knew that the injuries weren't caused by David, hell she didn't know where they came from, but it didn't stop her body from reacting the way it did. Her stepfather had hurt her in ways that she never saw coming, scaring not only her body, but her mind as well it seemed.

"Lorelai, let me see." Instantly, Lorelai stopped moving away. She didn't know why, but she felt something tug at the back of her mind and she couldn't help but let David move closer. He was confused as to why she began to unzip her hoodie, but once the smell of blood reached him, he understood why Paul and Dwayne had kept their distance from her before; she smelled better than he could have even imagined. Of course, David had smelled blood, but he had no clue that it was coming from her, not when her scent was as strong as it was without injury. When she pulled the hood off and brushed her long hair away from the front of her neck, the boys were finally able to see what was causing her to act so differently. Blood was beginning to drip down her red stained neck from four long gashes, the dried blood revealing that she had attempted to clean some of it off before she left the house, and the bruises scattered over her pale skin were dark and ugly, clearly hurting her. For some unknown reason, anger spiked within the group at the slight of the girl's injuries. David rationalized it as being possessive, seeing how someone had gotten to the human before they could have their own fun, but somewhere in the back of his mind, a small voice of reason told him that was a lie. "Who did this?"

Lorelai could see that the guys were all but seething, so she quickly covered back up with her hoodie and pulled her hair forward again. She was hesitant, not wanting them to think that she was crazy but at the same time, maybe voicing it out loud would make her feel better, reassure herself that she wasn't crazy. "I don't know." When she heard David scoff, her eyes met his in a hard glare, anger rising once more in her. "Fuck off David, I seriously don't!" There it was again, the harsh tone that wasn't like her at all. She rubbed her eyes, a defeated sigh escaping her mouth; first she snaps at Dwayne, then at David and for what? For them being nice to her? "God, I'm sorry David. I don't know what's wrong with me tonight, besides the obvious." David held up a hand, clearly a sign that all was forgiven.

Dwayne felt the same spike of rage erupt from within her, he knew he couldn't ignore it a second time, but he figured he would tell David about it later. Their main concern was to figure out what had happened. David raised an eyebrow at the girl in front of him, raising his right hand slowly, as if she was a wild dog ready to attack.

"Can I see it now without almost getting my head chewed off?" He knew that in her state right now, he could easily manipulate her into allowing him to look over the wound, but that wouldn't be fun to him knowing that she wasn't putting up a fight. Lorelai hesitated for a moment, debating on if she really wanted him to get that close to her, they had only just met after all but she couldn't deny that she felt at ease with him, with all of them honestly, as if she had known them for years. Finally, after she finished her mental debate, she slowly lowered the hoodie again and moved her hair back, feeling how it got stuck in the blood and mentally cringed at the thought of having to wash it out. David moved closer and she shivered as his gloved fingers trailed around the gashes, the urge to flinch strong but she held it back. Though when he pressed lightly on one of the bruises, she could stop the painful yelp from escaping, causing David to pull away instantly. "If you don't know who did this to you, then do you at least know how?" Taking a deep breath, Lorelai replayed the dream to them, explaining in detail what happened. After she was done and no one said a word, she laughed humorlessly, looking off at the waves crashing along the shore.

"You think I'm crazy." Marko shook his head, stepping towards her. He knew what it was like to not have people believe, and based on what she told them, she was not crazy, just a victim.

"Not at all. You know, there are studies that prove if you get hurt in a dream it's because you are actually hurt. Maybe you accidently cut yourself?" The boys all knew that wasn't the case, but they couldn't fully well tell the human that. With a little help from David's persuasion pushing into her mind, she began to nod along with Marko's explanation, his words making sense. David knew that eventually she would snap out of it and realize that it was all bullshit, but at least this gave them some time, and who knows, maybe she would begin to honestly believe the reasoning if he tried hard enough.

"Yeah that makes sense." They could all feel the tension fading off of her, making them finally feel more at ease, though her blood was still a distraction. David and Dwayne were the oldest of the group, so they knew how to ignore the scent, though her blood was the most alluring they had ever smelt, so they could only imagine how the other two were struggling with the temptation. She yawned, suddenly beyond tired and for once since she woke up, she felt ready to try and sleep again.

"Are we boring you already?" Lorelai laughed at David's smug attitude, waving a dismissive hand in his direction as she turned away from them, heading towards the entrance of the boardwalk.

"More like too exciting. I think talking about everything made me realize that I was just overreacting." She heard the boys following her, the sound of their boots hitting the wooden boards and David's cigarette smoke billowing around her from when he took the first puff; if she was going to continue hanging out with the boys after her father came home, she was going to have to either stand far away from David or start carrying strong perfume to mask the smoke scent. "Thanks, for listening to me that is. And I'm sorry for leaving you all hanging today, when I got home, I fell asleep." Once they got to the entrance, she looked around, eyebrows pulling together in confusion. "Wait, how did you guys get here? Your bikes aren't in their normal spots?" The boys all shared a laugh and Lorelai got a feeling that she was missing something.

"We decided tonight was a nice night to stroll through town." Paul slung an arm over her shoulders, careful to avoid her neck with his arm and made sure to hold his breath, not like he needed the air anyhow. "How about I walk you home, make sure no monsters get you, maybe have a sleepover." Lorelai laughed loudly at how bluntly Paul was flirting with her, dark blue eyes twinkling down at her. The minute he winked down at her he earned himself a halfhearted shove from Lorelai to which he pretended to roll with, knocking into Marko.

"Oh Paul, never will I bring you to my house for a 'sleepover'. Only in your dreams." Paul slid up to her, leaning lowly to speak directly in her ear lowly.

"You bet its in my dreams." Everyone groaned at him, but of course he didn't care, as he laughed loudly at how quickly Lorelai's face flushed bright red in embarrassment.

"I should slap you, but I walked into that one." After Paul's manic laughter died down and the guys settled their complaints about his comments, Lorelai began walking off, raising a hand in farewell. "Goodnight boys! Ill see you tomorrow," She turned to face them, pausing for half a second to make a X over her heart. "I promise!" And with that, the boys watched as she walked cheerfully away, her emotions finally at ease. The boys waited until Lorelai was out of sight before facing David, waiting for what their next move was.

"Did you feel that anger? She was like a whole different person." Dwayne nodded along with Paul's words, leaning against the railing.

"I felt it earlier when she ran into me. It was like nothing I've ever experienced, for someone to change their emotion so quickly." David though back to her description of the eyes, the fiery nature, the bloodlust weighing down on her body. There was only one person he knew that was like that. He flicked the burnt-out cigarette away, turning on his heel to walk down the empty street, the guys following behind him.

"I think we owe Max a visit. He should explain why he decided to mess with our game." As the vampires walked down the darken streets of Santa Carla, a shadow figure lingered behind them, watching from a dark alley near the entrance of the boardwalk. He had been watching the group for a while and never once had they let their prey just walk off. What was so special about the girl, he didn't know, but maybe that was his key in.


	10. The Realization

Lorelai leaned against the counter in the video store, looking at her fingernails in disinterest and boredom. When she woke up this morning, her neck was sore and one glance in the mirror confirmed the pain radiating upwards: the bruises from the night before had gotten darker, something Lorelai didn't even think was possible, and the gashes were an ugly red, dried blood crusting over the cuts and some red stains left over on her skin. After cleaning them up and covering the evidence up with makeup and bandages, she hoped that it would draw a lot of attention. 'I really did a number on myself.' She still wasn't too sure what it was, but the more she thought about how she did it to herself, the more something in the back of her mind tugged and pushed, like something she was trying to remember was just out of reach and she couldn't figure out what it was. Shrugging it off as nothing, she got ready for work, making sure her long hair was laying over her shoulders, hiding her attempt at covering up her injuries. During the morning shift, the store was empty, even in the afternoon they only had a handful of people enter, not that she minded. Her late night walk definitely took a lot out of her and was making her feel rather blah. At night, when the boardwalk was filled, the store became packed and the more experienced workers along with the owners got the heavier traffic shifts. She glanced over at her two coworkers who were gossiping effortlessly. She liked them well enough, the only thing that took her by surprise was how open they were with her and each other and expected her to be just as open as they were. But Lorelai couldn't, she had walls built up that she just couldn't break down, she wouldn't allow herself to. From what little she heard of their side conversation, mainly due to her not paying any attention, they were talking about some guy, which was no surprise to her, that seemed to be the center of all of Angela's issues.

"Oh Bonnie, you don't understand! James is different from the other guys I've gone out with." Bonnie was a middle-aged woman with wild curls and dark eyes, though she acted and looked younger than her age. Angela, on the other hand, was a year younger than Lorelai, with short blonde hair and a naive personality when it came to guys.

"Angela, you said the same crap about the last guy, what was his damn name, Jackson, and the other one, Matt. In the end, they all end up the same! My god, Lorelai please knock some sense into her because she's clearly not listening to me." Lorelai looked over at her coworkers, a small smile on her face as she lifted her shoulders in an apology, causing Angela to groan.

"Not you too!" Lorelai shoved off from the counter, finally facing the other two women.

"I'm sorry Ang, but Bonnie is right, you do this all the time." Although she didn't think of these girls as best friends of hers, she did begin to like them and didn't want to see them get hurt, even if it was their own fault, this case in point, Angela's shitty taste in men. Without thinking, she tossed her long hair over her shoulder, causing both of the girls to begin catcalling at her. "What? What's wrong?" She looked down, trying to see if there was something wrong with her outfit, but coming up empty handed, she looked back up. Bonnie pointed at her own neck, winking at Lorelai.

"Looks like somebody got lucky." Reaching up to her neck, her fingers grazed over the bandages she had placed along her neck and the events from the night before replayed in her mind as she quickly raised her other hand, trying to stop the girls, blushing at Bonnies' words.

"God, it's not fair! Why is it that I have to try so hard to get guys but you! You just got here and clearly you already found someone." Shaking her head, Lorelai glanced frantically between the two.

"W-wait guys, it's not what you think! I ended up scratching myself while sleeping, that's all." Something tugged at the back of her mind, just like this morning, but she pushed it to the side, figuring it was just the dream trying to worm itself back up. The two looked at her, unconvinced by her statement. "I swear guys, I have no men in my life." Glancing at the time on the computer screen, she quickly typed in her employee code, grabbing her wallet from the drawer, waving a quick bye, feeling relief at being able to escape from this conversation. "I'll be back in 30." Lorelai knew she had 3 hours left at work, but she thought of this as her dinner, seeing how she promised the guys she would see them tonight.

She went to one of the food stands, buying a large pretzel with a soda, strolling around in the fading light. The sun was setting over the water, casting a glare over at her, the ocean air causing her skin to tighten and leaving her feeling relaxed and at ease. She had missed the ocean so much over the years, the moment she was back, she just felt at home. Glancing behind her, she quickly finished her food, tossing the wax paper in the trash as she walked into the comic store, Frogs Comics. After all these years and the name remained the same. The three workers didn't look up from whatever they were doing, not that she minded. She walked down the aisle, trailing her fingers along the clear packaging that protected the comics, pausing at the beginning of the B's. Lorelai began digging through, looking for a specific comic.

"Can I help you?" Lorelai jumped, too lost in her own world that she didn't notice someone had approached her. She had her hands clenched in front of her, ready to strike if needed, not that she would ever actually hit someone, she just hoped that her pathetic attempt of looking intimidating worked. "Whoa listen, it was just a question!" She laughed, lowing her hands quickly, feeling a blush work its way up onto her face.

"I'm sorry, you startled me. Must have been too focused." Looking the guy up and down, she raised an eyebrow. He was taller than her, and while he was lean, he was built. He didn't look like a guy you would find in a comic bookstore. His light brown hair was combed neatly back and gelled, a vintage shirt under a clearly worn, faded red flannel along with faded jeans. He was someone she expected to see at a skate park rather than here. Though, she assumed he could think she didn't belong either, with her ankle length cream sweater over a plain sky-blue shirt and black leggings, she looked like she belonged in a clothing store rather than searching through old comics.

"Well, maybe I can help. I do work here after all." Lorelai sighed, tossing her hand up towards the rows and rows of comics, the place she had stopped clearly lost once she removed her hand.

"I'm trying to find a specific series, followed by some specific numbers." The guy laughed, rubbing the back of his neck, glancing down at the rows of books with a hesitant look. "And based on that reaction, I'm going to go with you can't help me after all." He shook his head no, causing her to laugh this time.

"Not that I wouldn't mind spending time with you looking through this mess, but nothing is in any order. I keep telling my uncles that we should have some kind of system here, but they never listen." Lorelai glanced over at the two older men behind the counter who were staring at the two, causing them to look away once they realized they were caught staring. She pulled out her phone, cursing at the time.

"I have to get going, my lunch break is almost up." She gave him a small smile before waving to the other men who resumed their watch of the teens, though less obvious this time. Just as she left the store, the guy she was talking to called after her, causing her to stop and turn, seeing him jogging lightly to the exit of the store, leaning against one of the open doors.

"Names Luke, Luke Frog. I hope I see you around…." Lorelai smiled over her shoulder, chuckling at the way he was trying to get her name. Normally she wouldn't give it up that easily, she hadn't to the boys just a few nights ago, but Luke seemed innocent enough, and besides, she didn't want to be rude if she was planning on returning to her old hang out spot.

"Its Lorelai Green." And with that, she continued her way back to the video store, clocking in at exactly 30 minutes. Both coworkers raised an eye at her almost-late entry, something that they noticed was unlike her, Lorelai was always early to clock in. When she saw their reactions, she let out a sigh, placing her hands on her hips. "Guys seriously, I already told you- "

"That you have no mystery guy. Yeah, yeah, you told us." Bonnie smiled wickedly at her, winking. "But don't think that we believe you for a second."

3 hours passed by rather quickly and as the sun began to set even farther, the boardwalk finally began picking up as crowds of teenagers and families were finally waking up and venturing outside. Santa Carla had always been a night town, when the sun was out it looked like it was a ghost town, the harsh light shining on all of the imperfections and bleached buildings, but when the moon rises and the cheerier lights flickered on in the dark, the town rose up and became something new, like there was energy pulsing out from the boardwalk. At the sound of the video store doors opening, all three girls looked over, smiles falling on all of their faces as a woman with a pixie cut and flowing skirt walked in. Lucy Emerson was one of the owners, a nice lady, very motherly to all of the employees. She came to the counter, smiling at the three girls.

"How was your day today?" The girls all answered with different states of goods, but when Lucy's eyes fell on Lorelai's neck, her eyebrows pulled together. "Oh honey, what happened?" Reaching up quickly, Lorelai pulled her hair in front of her neck to cover the bandages.

"Oh its, its nothing! I did it to myself while sleeping." Angela nudged Bonnie, winking at Lucy with a smirk on her face. Before she could say anything else on the matter, the other two girls began to giggle.

"Yeah, definitely not a mystery man." Lorelai shot them a look frowning. How many times was she going to have to argue with them?

"Seriously guys, there's no mystery man." The girls clocked out but didn't leave instantly. Instead, they stayed behind to talk, something that they always did, it wasn't like they were planning on going home right after work anyhow. A few minutes after clocking out, Max came in, the other owner, adjusting his glasses as he smiled at the girls. For some reason, Lorelai always felt uneasy around Max, but she never said anything about it because she was sure that she was the only one who felt that way. He hadn't done anything wrong to her, he just seemed too nice, like it was all an act. It reminded her of her stepfather, whenever they were out in public as a 'family' , he would put on a good face for others, and if she wanted to avoid the abuse later on, she had to do the same, though it only lightened the pain that she would receive, never really stop it.

"Hello ladies. Any plans tonight now that you're free?" Before Angela could spill her guts about her new man, the doors swung open once more, a hush falling over the store. Lorelai let out a breath she didn't know that she was holding at the sight of the four guys, eyes darting around the store, stopping once they landed on her. The atmosphere around the store shifted dramatically, a buzz filled the store, like static energy, but while everyone else grew uneasy at the feeling, Lorelai enjoyed it. She beamed brightly at them, holding up a finger to let them know that she would be right over, leaving them to slowly walk around the store, customers all but running away from the group.

"Well, that's my cue to head out. I'll see everyone later!" Before she moved, an arm hung over her shoulders, causing her to jump. She looked over at the towering figure next to her, seeing a grinning Paul looking over at her coworkers. She hadn't noticed that he had separated from the rest of the group to make his way over to them. He smiled wickedly down at her, causing a suspicion to rise instantly at what he was going to do.

"Or maybe not." As he winked down at her, Lorelai realized, mortified, what he meant by those words. She gave him a rough push, though he didn't move an inch, and looked back over at her coworkers, feeling embarrassment and anger rising inwardly at Paul. Bonnie was starstruck by him, jaw open and eyes wide, trying to take in as much as Paul's figure that she could while Angela was blinking in confusion, eyes darting back and forth between her, Paul, and the rest of the guys lingering around the store. Lorelai wasn't blind, she knew that Paul, along with the others, were hot as hell, she just hoped that she didn't look as pathetic as her friends did when faced with the boys.

"So, you were right, it's not a mystery man, its mystery _men_, as in more than _one_!?" Lorelai felt her face heat up and began to shake her head as Paul pulled her away, not giving her a chance to explain anything. She craned her neck to look back at the girls, desperation in her eyes to get them to listen to her.

"No! You don't understand!" But she couldn't say much more as she was dragged out of the video store, the other guys trailing behind them, blocking her from the others they left behind.. Once they made it to the railing across the boardwalk, Lorelai gave Paul another push, this time getting him to release his iron-tight hold on her. She turned on her heels, facing Paul who wore an innocent face, causing her anger to flair into rage. "Are you insane? My coworkers are definitely judging me now!" Running her hands through her long hair, pushing it away from her face, Lorelai leaned against the raining, moving her glare from Paul to the ground, settling for embarrassment rather than anger. How was she going to be able to face her coworkers tomorrow after Paul said that?

"For what, hanging out with some misfits?" She looked over at Marko who spoked behind a gloved hand, sighing and shaking her head. He should know by now that she could care less that people gave her strange looks when she was with them. No, this was about her dignity.

"Marko, I could care less what people think about us hanging out. It was what Paul said! They already think I'm covering a hickey from some 'mystery man' with these," She gestured to her neck, where the makeup and bandages were exposed now that her hair was out of the way, but the glowing lights of the boardwalk made it all but invisible now. "but now they think- "Lorelai stopped herself short, covering her face with both hands as she groaned, feeling all but mortified. She knew the guys were attractive, she wasn't blind, and she knew what kind of vibes they emitted: dangerous and sexy, and predatory. She just started this job; she didn't want to be known as a slut.

David raised an eyebrow at Paul who was smirking, clearly knowing what he did. He looked back at the girl in front of them, taking in the bandages she placed over her cuts, along with thick layers of makeup covering up the bruises before chuckling, causing Lorelai to look up, frustration filling the air between them. "What's so funny about that?!" He leaned closer to her, frowning slightly when she didn't move away, clearly not afraid of him. That was what frustrated him the most, the lack of fear in her body, the defiant look that sparkled throughout her unnaturally light green eyes. Marko cleared his throat, feeling the sudden shift in David and Lorelai's moods, causing Lorelai to look over at him, his innocent face, making her anger faulter.

"I don't get it, what do they think then?" At first, Lorelai was going to answer him, honestly believing in his question and the innocence that he showed her. But the moment she looked into his green eyes, shining back at her in humor, she felt her anger slam back into her at once; clearly, he was mocking her embarrassment. With a frustrated groan she stormed past them, making sure to bump the shoulders of both Marko and Paul, walking down the boardwalk, not caring where she went, as long as it was away from them. She didn't know why she let them get under her skin so easily, maybe it was because they were be nice to her. But what worried her was why was she letting them get reactions out of her, reactions that she had never had before.

'God I'm such an idiot….' Eventually tired of walking, Lorelai paused off to the side of the railing, looking to see where she had stopped. She chuckled, seeing the comic store directly in front of her; it wasn't her intention to come back here, her legs had a mind of their own while she was lost in thought. Looking around to make sure the guys weren't there to follow her inside, she quickly ran into the store, hiding among the rather large crowd. She couldn't believe that she was hiding in the comic store so she wouldn't be embarrassed even farther, this was a new low, even for her. While paying more attention to what was behind her rather than in front, she bumped into someone, causing the comic the person was holding to fall from their hands. "I'm so sorry! I wasn't paying attention to where I was going…" Looking up, she felt her the words die in her mouth when she saw who she had crashed into. He looked exactly the same from all those years ago, and although she could have only guessed that from the first time she saw him, now that they were closer, face to face, she could tell that it was really him, that she wasn't going insane. "Sam?" It was the sandy blond hair and wide green eyes that she knew so well, along with the poor fashion sense that she would make fun of. Everything was the same.

Sam was startled when he saw Lorelai and while he tried to avoid her, first on the boardwalk and now here, it seems like they were meant to run into each other. He knew David was beyond pissed that he exposed himself to a human all those years ago, he should have known better, just kill and leave, because now the danger of making friends with a human was coming up, years later. He was supposed to be older, about 18 from the last time she saw him, and now that they were in front of each other, gazes locked, he didn't know what to do. David had told him, after he revealed that she knew him, that he and the rest of the guys would take care of his mistake. The way he said it, it was a _mistake_ to befriend a human, but that's what he did, she was his best friend, and now, because of him, she was going to die.

"Yeah that's my name. Remember, I told you?" Lorelai shook her head, takin a step closer, though Sam stepped away, trying to keep some distance between them.

"No, well yeah I remember but…. You look the same, you're still 14- "Sam's smile dropped as he turned away from her. She knew he was referring to earlier when they first saw each other on the boardwalk, but she was referring to all those years ago when they first met.

"I'm sorry, but I think you're confused." Without giving her a chance to say anything on the matter, he walked off. Before Lorelai could follow him though, a hand grabbed hers, stopping and spinning her around, leaving her face to face with Luke.

"Twice in one day? You better be careful; I'm going to think that you are stalking me." Looking behind her, she let out a sigh, forcing a smile up as she met his gaze. Luke let go of her hand, crossing his arms over his chest, chuckling lightly. "Sorry, too creepy? You just seemed stressed and I thought a little humor would make you feel better."

David walked up and down the boardwalk with the others twice before he finally stopped, slamming his hands down on the railing. "David, relax." He growled, glaring over at Dwayne. He knew that they were pushing her buttons, hell he enjoyed watching her get flustered, it sent her heart racing and her blood pumping quickly in her veins. But he didn't think that she would storm away like she did. Those sudden mood swings that she kept having, those sudden spikes of anger. He had never seen a human go through so many and have them as strong as this girl did; the only ones that he had ever seen go through these are other vampires, newer ones mainly who were still trying to sperate their human side from their predatory side. And not only did he wonder that, but he also would love to know how she kept evading them. Her scent was so intense and so unique, they should have been able to follow her anywhere with no issue, hell, they were great hunters, so how did she disappear on them.

"How do you expect me to relax? She's gone again! I'm this close to just forgetting about the game and just killing her. Emerson never made it this hard." Marko looked around, eyes landing on the comic store. Focusing inside and searching through the large crowd, a smile spread over his face as he nudged Paul who was next to him, tilting his head over to the store.

"I think I just found her." All of their eyes flashed over to the store where they undoubtly saw Lorelai, but their smiles turned to frowns just as fast as they appeared when they saw her talking to a guy. She was laughing at something he said, they couldn't quite catch it though due to all of the noise happening around them, but they didn't care. A sense of frustration flew through their group bond, even some jealously surfaced when they saw her enjoying her time with a different guy. They wanted to barge into the store and drag her away from the guy she was currently talking to, but they remained outside, staring at them. They could all sense the jealousy that flowed through them, and the more that the emotion lingered, the more they were beginning to wonder was it because their plaything wasn't entertaining them or was it because she was entertaining someone else. The only thing that dragged their attention away from Lorelai was Sam, attempting to sneak past them as he left the building. David whistled, catching the younger vampires' eyes, motioning for him to come over to them. Sam hesitantly walked over, he was hoping to avoid the guys, but it seems like he wasn't that lucky. He stopped just out of any of their reaches, not wanting to be any closer to the older vampires then he had to. He knew it was about Lorelai, why else would they want to speak to him? Over the past few years, the small group separated themselves from the rest of the "family", not that they ever thought of any of them as family, but they were a coven nonetheless, whether Sam wanted to be in one or not. David pulled out a cigarette, lighting it and taking a drag before his pale eyes flashed back over to the comic store.

"Who is she talking to?" He didn't say her name, he didn't need to after all, but Sam still looked over his shoulder, watching as his 'childhood' (could it even be called a childhood if he was supposed to be 30 by the time they met?) friend laughing and lightly flirting with one of the comic workers, unaware of the vampires watching them from across the boardwalk. Sam grimaced when he saw the boy brush Lorelai's long hair away from her face, sensing the tension surrounding the 5 of them intensify; and just because he was trying to avoid the girl didn't mean he didn't care about her, she was like the sister he never had. Star attempted to be big sisterly to him, which he appreciated, but she just didn't understand him like Lorelai had.

"You aren't going to like my answer." Sam looked back over at the older guys, noticing how quickly their patience was fading. He held up both hands, taking a small step backwards, separating himself from them further. "I'm just warning you! His name is Luke Frog, he's the nephew of one of the Frog Brothers." At the mention of his former friends, he noticed looks of anger and uncertainty flash within their eyes. He remembered the last time they encountered the Frog brothers; Sam was a part of their take down mission all those years ago. Only they poorly underestimated the strength of the vampires, hell they weren't even successful in staking a sleeping one, which he did give Marko credit, he did a good job at fooling them. And once the Frogs realized that it was a losing battle, they ran, leaving them all in the hands of Max. Suddenly, Paul snickered to the side of him, nudging Marko as he grinned.

"You mean to tell me those military wannabes actually reproduced?" Laughter spread through the entire group, all except Sam, who took the opportunity to escape. He knew their humor was going to be short lived. David, though he was snickering at Pauls' comment, inwardly he knew that they were going to have to do something about Lorelai spending time with one of the Frogs, it would only be a hazard.

Lorelai flushed, pouting as Luke laughed at her. "Seriously Frog, it's not funny! I'm mortified of going back to work!" At her words, Luke only laughed harder, leaning on one of the comic shelves for support.

"So, you mean to tell me that your co-workers think that you are sleeping with what, 4 different guys?" When Luke said it, Lorelai couldn't help but laugh, realizing how silly it sounded. She had never given her co-workers a reason to think that she was having sex with multiple men, chances are they were just fucking with her because it got a reaction out of her. Instantly, her laughter died out, replaced with guilt. The guys were only trying to make her laugh earlier at the situation she found herself in, and she completely snapped and ran away from them, it wasn't entirely fair. "Whoa, mood change much?" Lorelai sighed, laying a hand on his arm.

"Sorry, I just have to go do something. It was nice to run into you again." Offering a small smile, she quickly ran out, attempting to dodge bodies pressed together in tight, sweaty groups. She found herself standing in the middle of the boardwalk, pale eyes flashing over faces, face twisted in a desperate search. Finally, her shifting eyes stopped and her face twisted into a smile when she locked gazes with the boys. She made her way slowly over to the small group, the closer she got, the easier it was to move; no one wanted to get close to them after all. The guys all smiled almost predatory, their eyes shining brightly in the boardwalk lights, but the smiles faltered once she stopped a few paces away, crossing her arms over her chest and setting her face stern. "Before I start, this is not an apology." David opened his mouth, clearly about to give her some smartass remark, but he stopped once Lorelai raised a hand and eyebrow, shaking her head. "Let me finish. You guys seriously pissed me off. Paul, I work with those girls and I'm still new, you can't make those comments. And the rest of you, do you even realize how far under my skin you got? Next time I walk off, don't expect me to come back." Taking a deep breath, she felt a small smile trying to creep itself onto her face: the guys were utterly shocked and speechless at her little rant. Lorelai could only guess that she's part of a small group of people who aren't scared to talk at them. Satisfied with the response, or lack of response, she got, Lorelai cleared her throat, glancing down at her shoes, suddenly nervous. "…..And I had no right to react the way I did, it was wrong." A few seconds past between the small girl and the guys, and the longer the silence lasted, the more nervous she became. She felt a leather-clad finger under her chin, raising her head to meet pale blue eyes, breath caught in her throat.

"Didn't you just say you weren't going to apologize?" David clicked his tongue, dropping his hand from her face as he walked around her, the others sending her teasing smiles as they passed her. "Lying doesn't suit you Lorelai." Flabbergasted and cheeks suddenly hot, she ran after the guys, seamlessly blending into their small pack, situated somewhat in the center. She probably shouldn't, but she felt safe in the center of this group.

"I didn't lie! If you think that was an apology David, then clearly you aren't used to hearing them. I was just explaining that I might have been out of line as well." He glanced over his shoulder, and while he wasn't smiling, his eyes gave him away. Marko grabbed her waist, pulling her close, the ends her long hair brushing across his hand, soft and light.

"Glad to have you back Rory." Lorelai raised an eyebrow at the curly blond, not used to the nickname. He smiled widely down at her, his grin resembling the Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland.

"Rory? You would think that I would have been called that sooner, Lorelai is a mouthful." She laughed, wrapping an arm around Markos waist and under his patched jacket, realizing just how cold she was when she felt how warm the jacket was over her arm, causing a shiver to run through her. She tried to ignore the first cold chill, but by the third one on their little walk back up the boardwalk, she saw that David had begun to notice.

"Alright, it's time for Lorelai to go home. Seems like the cold is too much for her." She hadn't expected David to use the nickname that Marko had given her, but she did feel a little disappointed. Though, the feeling was quickly replaced when she saw what they stood in front of. Marko had let go of her, making his way over to his motorcycle, as did the rest of the guys, But Lorelai remained frozen, beginning to shake her head.

"No." The guys looked back over to her, David raising an eyebrow at her. For this girl to be so fearless around them, to be able to ignore the instinct to run away that all humans feel near them, she was terrified of the littlest of things. "I'm not getting on one of those death traps." Lorelai thought about what her father would say if he saw her hanging out with these boys, riding on the back of a motorcycle. Oh, he would have her head for sure. Paul snickered, leaning back on his bike.

"I thought the rollercoaster was a death trap?" Lorelai pointed at the bikes, eyes wide and voice hitching in panic.

"So are these things! Listen, I had a friend who repaired bikes and she tried to get me on one. If I said no to her, you best believe that you are also getting a no." David held out a single gloved hand to her, his icy eyes for once not holding the cold indifference that they always seemed to have. This time they seemed softer, more patient, as if he knew that it would only be a matter of time before she agreed.

"Lorelai, we can sit out here all night arguing if you want, but you aren't going to get much warmer. Shall we?" Deciding to be stubborn and give David a taste of his own medicine, she placed her hands on her hips, glaring as coldly as she could at him.

"Not even in your dreams." David resisted the urge to growl at the girl in front of him. Her pale eyes were hard, unwilling to budge, and her body language screamed anger, but it was the waves of emotions coming off of her that made him settle. At first, he couldn't figure it out, but as he felt it growing stronger, it surprised him. This was fear, pure fear rolling off of her and crashing into them, not because of them, no that would be too sane, but because of their bikes. He was so accustomed to not having this reaction to her, he couldn't place it, even though it was the strongest of the emotions they typically received from humans. And they normally thrived off of the emotion, usually enjoying the warmth it provided to them, the intoxicating smell that only fear emitted, but from her, it locked up his joints and it felt as though his blood ran colder then normal. He didn't like it one bit, and he noticed that his brothers were having the same reaction that he was. He let out a sigh, getting off of his bike and making his way over to the small girl, pausing when they were only inches away.

"What are you scared of?" Lorelai hesitated, her glare turning into frustration as she looked at the ground. She hated feeling weak in front of the guys but hated it even more when she felt weak in front of David. She knew that she would sound stupid to them, her reasoning, and did not want them to laugh at her.

"Falling… I'm scared of falling off." After a few seconds went by without any laughter, she looked up, noticing the understanding looks they were sending her. David extended his hand one more time to her, his eyes almost warm, drawing her in.

"I promise, I won't let you fall." She was hesitant, the fear still coursing through her, but she swallowed and pushed it down, placing her smaller hand in David's gloved ones, allowing him to pull her over to the bike and helping her get on behind him. The guys all whooped in joy around her, calling out to her, but they fell on deaf ears as the panic began to bubble back up as David turned the bike on, the rumbling underneath her causing her to grip tightly to the sides of the seat. She glanced around, catching the eyes of the bystanders around them. Everyone seemed to pause around them, eyes trained to the bikes and the riders sitting on them. She was sent a mixture of looks, jealous glares of girls, wanting looks guys, and the look of fear on some of the locals. A whistle from the right of her drew her gaze away from the people on the street, only to be met with something being thrown in her direction. Out of pure instincts, she unlatched her fingers from the leather seat, catching what she now realized was Marko's patched up jacket. She looked over at the curly blond with wide eyes, shaking her head as she held the jacket back out to her. He was now left in his jeans and white short sleeved shirt. At least she had David to block the cold wind from her, but Marko would surely be colder than her.

"Believe me Rory, you'll need it more. I'm used to this." Not wanting to argue, she slipped her arms through the large jacket, giggling slightly at just how big it was. Marko might have been the shortest of all of the guys, but looking at him now without the jacket, she noticed that he was lean, his bare arms showing just how strong he was. She noticed that, while their bikes were started, they weren't moving yet. She felt David lean back slightly, head turned so he could speak over the noise of the bikes.

"Put your arms around me." When she didn't comply right away, David chuckled, shaking his head. "Trust me, you don't want to fall right?" Lorelai instantly wrapped her arms around his frame, moving closer to him. It wasn't until they shot forward into the streets that she realized that he was right, she would have fallen off if she wasn't holding onto him, and at the same moment she came to realize that this was the closest to the leader that she had ever been. Her cheek was laid against his back, taking comfort in how steady his breathing was, his dark long coat soft against her skin, and her fingers spread across his taunt stomach and chest, flexing to grip him tighter when they turned or hit small bumps in the road. "Do you want to go home or ride?" Although he was yelling over the roar of the bikes, Lorelai still had to strain to hear him fully, though she enjoyed hearing and the rumbling of his voice where she laid her head on him. He was leaving the choice to her, letting her decide what she was comfortable with. A small smile crossed over her face as she locked eyes with Dwayne, who was on the right side of them, the other two either behind or on the other side.

"Lets ride!" At her decision, she heard the other boys yelling with excitement and felt David laugh, increasing the speed that they were going. Fueled by the high spirits of the group, she slowly began to loosen up her hold on blond, moving slightly back to feel the wind hit her in the face and blow her hair away from her face and out behind her. The longer she was on the back of the bike, the more she realized how much fun she was having and how much she had missed out on in the past. This wasn't scary, this was thrilling! She moved in closer to David's ear, blinking away the tears that rushed to her eyes at the sheer amount of wind that smacked her in the face now that she was out from behind him. "Can we go faster?" She almost freaked out when he tore his eyes away from the road, meeting hers for a fraction of a second before looking back in front of him, and though she couldn't see it, she imagined a smile gracing his face.

"You heard the girl, lets show her how we really ride." Paul came closer than she figured was safe, giving her a wink, which caused her to laugh.

"You better hold on Chica, things are about to get real fun!" Before she had a moment to question him, the bike sped up even more, causing her to grab onto David again for dear life with a surprised yelp. She couldn't even imagine how fast they were going, all of the lights and other cars flying past her in blurs, the wind stinging her face and exposed hands, and she couldn't help but think how the boys felt with the wind hitting them in the face, how they were able to see anything. Finally used to the feeling of the speed they were going, she let the rush of adrenaline flow through her. Laughing, she slowly let go of David, gripping the seat tightly with her thighs as she spread her arms out, pressing herself slightly tighter to his back to keep her balance and let her head tilt back with her eyes closed, allowing herself to just enjoy the feeling, enjoy life.

David was able to see her through his brothers' eyes, see that she was truly enjoying herself. The last person that he had on the back of his bike was Star, about 30 years ago, and it was only after she had turned that she began enjoyed the speed that they traveled at, the recklessness that they rode with, but even then she never fully embraced it like this human girl was. '_It seems like we have an adrenaline junkie on our hands.'_ His words flowed through their bond, causing the others to chuckle as they kept up with his bike as the swerved through traffic.

Lorelai had no concept of time when she was on the back of the bike, so when the guys began to slow up and pull off into an abandon parking lot, she was confused. It wasn't until she took out her phone and saw the time that she realized just how long they were riding for. "I can't believe that its already 4 in the morning! The suns going to be up soon…" She tried to run her fingers through her hair, but after feeling just how knotted it was, she allowed her hands to fall to her side, looking up at the star filled sky. "I think its officially time to call it a night." They took off, slower this time so that they could listen to Lorelai's direction to her house. While it only took them 10 minutes, she felt they were going so slow, it was nothing compared to how they were flying earlier in the night. When they stopped outside of her house, Paul whistled, eyes widening at the sight of her house.

"Girl, you live in the middle of nowhere." Lorelai climbed off the back of the bike with David's help, letting the guys follow her up onto the porch, pausing to open the door. "You don't lock the door?" Lorelai shook her head, walking inside the house, flicking on some lights as she went.

"One of the perks of living in the middle of the woods, no one ever comes up here so there's no need to lock the door." She paused, looking at the guys who were still standing out on the porch, looking around from the outside. "Uh… you guys are more than welcomed to come in you know?" She didn't take them as gentlemen, waiting to be invited, but who was she to judge. Only after they were inside did she move to the kitchen, pouring herself some apple juice. She didn't even realize how thirsty she was until that moment.

"Do you live alone?" Lorelai laughed loudly, moving to lean against the wall that separated the kitchen and living room. The guys looked out of place in her father's modernly decorated living room, their dark outfits of leather standing out against the light fabrics of the seats and wood.

"I wish. My father is out of town for a few weeks, hence why I'm able to keep up with your crazy hours and you're even allowed inside." Paul threw himself backwards onto the sofa, blinking innocently up at her.

"Are you saying that your father wouldn't approve us? I feel insulted!" Placing her cup down on one of the glass tables, she leaned over the back of the sofa, wrapping her arms around Paul in a hug.

"Oh of course my overly strict, university professor father would be so approving of his baby girl hanging out with four leather clad, motorcycle riding, dangerously handsome guys at night." Lightly tugging the ends of Paul's hair as she stood up, she let out a yawn, smiling sheepishly at the guys.

"Alright, let's get out of here. Suns almost up and Lorelai here needs her beauty rest. "She stuck her tongue out at David, she smirked at her as the others filed out onto the porch. Just before she shut her front door, David grabbed the door, stopping her. Her smile fell as she saw something pass over his face, a mixture between worry and angry. "That guy you were talking to at the comic store, the Frog kid. Don't trust him or his family, they aren't what you think." Before she had a moment to ask what he meant, or how he even knew Luke, he walked away, hoping on his bike and riding away with the others.

After they were gone, Lorelai shut the door, locking it as an afterthought; wouldn't living in the middle of nowhere result in locking the door even more? Shaking her head, she went up the stairs to take a shower, groaning when she noticed that she still had Marko's jacket on. The poor guy was probably freezing on their ride back to wherever it was that they lived. Shrugging it off and laying it on the counter, she took a quick shower, running her fingers through her hair to rid as many knots as she could before she would take a brush to it after she was done. She was so worn out now that the adrenaline rush left her and the warm shower relaxed her muscles that she ended up crawling into bed in just a towel, Markos patched jacket at the foot of the bed, and she drifted off to sleep in seconds.


	11. The Past: Part One

_Lorelai looked around, slowly making her way along the length of the beach. This was a dream, the hazy corners of her vision all but proving it to her, but she didn't mind this dream, it was better than her nightmare, the last dream she had. A soft breeze blew her hair around her face and caused her to smile softly at the feeling. Waves lapped at her feet, the cool water only going as high as her ankles before receding back into the ocean. She was dressed in her favorite dress, the white flowing one that she wore the same night she had met the boys on the boardwalk. It only went to her ankle, just above where the water rose to, though her string anklet was well beyond soaked, the pale colors darker now from the water. She would have been cold, but between the slow setting sun and Marko's jacket wrapped around her, she was perfectly content walking in the waters grasp. She froze though, when she saw someone paused in front of her, standing in the water. She couldn't quite make out this stranger, the suns glare on the ocean causing her to squint against its harsh glare, though the moment he spoke, she knew exactly who it was. "You dream of sunlight and peace, and somehow I get dragged into the mix?" David was ankle deep in the ocean, staring across the water at the sun, somehow the harsh light not bothering his eyes. "While I'm not complaining, I have missed the warmth, but this outfit, seriously?" Lorelai torn her eyes away from his face, gaze lingering over his form as he gestured to himself. He had a form fitting white shirt and khaki pants that went to about his shin, thought he bottoms were getting wet from the small waves, blond hair not in their normal spikes, rather a mess, as though he had ran his fingers through it a few times. He looked over, ice blue eyes appearing almost clear as the sun shone at an angle through them, causing them to appear warmer as though the coldness had melted. Lorelai felt her breath catch in her throat, frozen at the sight of David, a sight she never would have ever imagined seeing. In the night, the only times she had ever seen him, he appeared pale and cold in all forms, but now, in the sunlight, she was amazed, starstruck even. His skin wasn't pale, rather it was tan, his eyes soft and warm, even his pale blond hair seemed more colored rather than bleach white, a small scruff over his face. In the sunlight he looked more handsome and more human than she had ever seen him._

_ "I think the lighter colors suit you more." She smiled as she made her way closer to him, though remaining the same distance on the shore, not wanting her dress to get wet. "Why did you tell me to not trust Luke?" She knew that this was a dream, it had to be one, she never would have gotten David to agree to come onto the beach or dress out of his usual attire of black, and as she was slowly figuring out, he and the others seemed to be more of the nocturnal kind, not that that she minded of course, to each their own. Although David looked away from her, she could hear his harsh laugh, it was shorter, sharper than any of the others she heard from him._

_ "So that's his name, Luke." Lorelai could almost feel the distaste that David said her friends name with, as if it was something sour in his mouth. "He's a Frog, and none of the Frogs are any good for you to be around. They have a…. troubled past." Lorelai felt herself moving deeper into the water, the hem of her dress floating at the beginning of her walk towards David's being, though it began to sink the more it filled with water. She stopped only when she was directly behind him, the water now almost at her knees, but she didn't mind. If it was a troubled past that he was worried about, then that meant that she wasn't to be trusted either._

_ "Why should I listen to you? After all, we technically only just met." It was true, its only been about a week of knowing the guys, but somehow she felt closer to them than anyone else she had met, and even though there was something about them that sent her pulse racing and made her instincts want to run as fast as possible in the other direction, she couldn't help but to be drawn closer to them. Lorelai chose to look down at the water, her legs and dress lost in the murkiness of it, instead of looking up at David as he turned to face her. Although she voiced out loud her hesitation to trust his words, she didn't want him to see just how much his words affected her. She knew that if he asked her to jump, her first unfiltered reaction would be to ask how high, and that went towards any of the boys; it scared her, deep in her bones, because the last time she trusted someone like that, he turned out to be an abusive asshole who married her mother. _

_ "I guess I'm asking you to trust me." She shifted around in the water, burring her toes deeper into the cool, almost slimy, sand that was hidden beneath her, refusing to look up. "Why don't you ever look at me." His voice waivered, only slightly, but Lorelai caught it, the slight hesitation, the uncertainty beneath the hard shell that he always presented to the world. She had to remind herself that this was just a dream, David would never allow himself to be so open in the real world. She looked up at his face, eyes lingering only for a few seconds on his features, though never once meeting his eyes, she couldn't at this proximity. She might try to act tough around the guys, put on a brave face and stare down the leader of their little pack, but in truth she could only look him in the eye for all of two seconds before she felt herself either intimidated or pulled in to a sort of trance. Neither of those options felt good to her. David chuckled at her, shaking his head. "You know that's not what I meant." Lorelai sighed, tugging on one the long sleeves of Marko's jacket, admiring the patches that littered the sleeve._

_ "I forgot to give this back to Marko- " _

_ "You're trying to change the topic." Lorelai set her face in a pout. He had cut her off, granted it was because she was trying to avoid the conversation that he started, but still, she did not appreciate it in the slightest._

_ "I do look at you… sometimes… But I do it to the others as well! I just-….." She sighed, shifting awkwardly as she played with her fingers under the sleeves. Why did she avoid looking into all of their eyes? David was really the only one that gave her the uneasy feeling when she looked into his light eyes, but she avoided the others as well. Maybe it wasn't because of the uneasiness, rather something else that she was trying to avoid? "You really want to know why I don't look at you?" She saw him move closer to her, the movement creating small ripples that went over her knees, until he stopped directly in front of her._

_ "That's why I asked." She could feel his breath hit her in the face, causing her to shut her eyes; it was easier to be confident if you can't see what you are facing. She knew that one from past experience._

_ "Every time I look at you, I feel this…this unknown danger. It rises from my stomach and lodges itself in my throat. It makes my cheeks warm and throat scratchy and stomach turn and hands clammy. You know, eye contact is a dangerous thing for a girl like me. All these feelings I feel when I look into your eyes scare me David. All of it scares the hell out of me." Her voice was loud with confidence as she began her explanation, but slowly the strength in her words and voice began to die out, by the end of her little rant it was hardly a whisper. The silence grew between the two of them, Lorelai's words hanging heavily in the small space they occupied. After what felt like hours, fingertips ghosted over her cheek, causing Lorelai's eyes drifted up to David's, and it was over. His lips caught hers in a hard kiss, driving them apart with the force of it. There was nothing gentle about this kiss, and Lorelai felt herself enjoying that fact. Gloved hands grabbed her face as they moved backwards, water and sand turning quickly to air and carpet as the scenery around them shifted. No longer were they on the beach in the sunlight, rather they were in a dark room, her bedroom in fact, with the curtains closed and lights turned off. She felt the door rattle against her back as David pushed her further, shifting to press against her even more, to eliminate any existing space between them. Every thought exploded in Lorelai's head, turning to a pounding, pure white light, and she could feel a curl of desire deep inside her begin to twist and rise, something dark, something that urged her to kiss him back just as fiercely, bending all of her rules that she had made over the years, snapping what little restraint remained within her. When they parted, Lorelai was gasping for air, head leaned back against the door and eyes shut tight, her lips swollen and smiling. She could hear and feel David's own ragged breath hitting her in the face, chest heaving against hers. She didn't open her eyes until her breathing was finally under control, and when she did, her eyes looked over David's changed appearance. Gone was the sunny daydream guy she was standing in the ocean with just moments ago, dressed in loose khakis and white shirt and sun kissed skin and warm blue eyes. Now, he stood in front of her dressed in all back, gloves covering his hands and pale skin covered in shadows, those icy blue eyes holding their usual intenseness, as though David had his own personal joke that he refused to share. One of his eyebrows rose as he noticed her looking over his outfit change._

_ "Disappointed?" She laid a hand on his chest, fingers spread out in a way as to feel as much as him as she could. A small smile formed as she tilted her head in consideration, though her eyes remained roaming over his darker features._

_ "Earlier I said that I preferred the lighter colors, but I think I was wrong. I prefer this David a lot more. "He laughed, and it was then that Lorelai realized that, under her hand, she could feel the rumble of his laugh, but no heartbeat. While she knew that this was a dream, though she dearly wished it wasn't because that kiss was just perfect, she still would have thought that her mind would have given him a heartbeat. Then she though back to the bike ride, how even though she clung to him, even though she could easily feel his laughter and words vibrate through his being, she felt no thumping from within his chest, no beat signaling that he was, in fact, alive. She looked up in a panic, about to say something about it to him, but David just grinned down at her, leaning closer until his lips were brushing against her ear, warm breath making her shiver and sent her heart racing. Faintly, she could hear her own pulse beating in her ears._

_ "It's time for you to wake up." Her pulse was getting louder, making it hard to hear his whisper even though it was said directly into her ear._

_ "What if I don't want to? I still have questions, and this is the first time you are answering me straight." Lorelai could feel the stubble on his face run against her own skin as he moved away, only enough to look her in the eye. He was smirking now, a smug look crossing over his features before they softened at her pouting face._

_ "Trust me, you would rather be awake to ask whatever questions you have." The pounding was growing louder, causing her to groan and grab the sides of her head, eyes clenching in pain before everything was quiet._

Lorelai's eyes fluttered opened to see nothing except her dark bedroom. Slowly, she sat up, glancing around. Her room was in fact dark, curtains drawn over the window and towel now hung loosely around her, not really covering her anymore. At first, she thought that it was only a few hours of sleep that she had gotten, but upon further inspection she found her hair to be completely dried along with the towel, and when she picked up her phone her eyes widened; she had slept through the entire day! The pounding noise startled her up out of bed, three loud bangs. She had assumed that it was her pulse in her dream, but now she realized that it was the front door downstairs, the thing that woke her up before she was able to sleep for a full 24 hours. Fixing the towel so that it covered more of her and was secured tightly around her, she left the bedroom, throwing on Markos jacket that still remained on the foot of her bed; she didn't know who was at her door so at least the jacket would do something to cover her up some more and the pounding was getting more aggressive so she didn't have time to throw on any clothes. Running quickly down the stairs, she threw on lights as she went, swinging opening the door rather harshly to avoid any more 'knocking'. Her head was starting to hurt as it replayed the dream on repeat, or rather the kiss. She shouldn't have been surprised to see the guys standing on her porch, but she was shocked, and slightly pissed off. Paul stood in front of her, fist raised to deliver some more blows to her door. Quickly, Lorelai's eyes scanned over the wooden door, examining it for any damage the blond might have made, though her gaze was torn away when a low whistle sounded, along with a few chuckles. "God girl, you are killing me!" At first she was confused at what Paul was talking about, still delirious from waking up only moments ago, but when a breeze blew past the guys and over her bare legs and chest, she couldn't stop the blush from rising, pulling Markos jacket closed over the towel.

"You woke me up with your obsessive knocking." She moved away from the door, letting the guys file inside as she leaned against the railing of the staircase. She saw David smirking at her and instantly she had to look away, her dream making it hard to look at him.

"Do you make it a habit to sleep in a towel?" She groaned, rolling her eyes and placing her hands on her hips.

"I do when people decide to keep me out until the early morning hours." She huffed when they began to laugh at her, each moving around the Livingroom. Paul ended up sprawled out on the couch, his long blond hair falling over the armrest that huis head laid on, Marko was opposite of him, sitting in one of the armchairs as he admired a framed photo that was set up on the table next to him, Dwayne was skimming through the books that lined the shelves set up around the room, and David was leaning against the back of the couch, smirking eyes staring intently at her.

"Go get dressed. We are taking you out." Lorelai raised an eyebrow at David's demand, crossing her arms and refusing to move. When he realized just how stubborn she was being, he gave her a large smile, clearly mocking her. "Please?" Even though she knew it wasn't sincere, she complied, running up the stairs and going straight to her closet before pausing, staring hopelessly at the open doors and the many clothes that were hanging up.

"Where are we going? I need to know for outfit purposes." She yelled down to them, hoping that at least one of them heard her. When she got no response though, she turned, about to go to the steps once more but instead jumped and let out a small scream, clutching the towel that was around her. Marko was behind her, sitting on her bed and smiling up at her. She hadn't heard him come up the stairs or even make his way into her room, which frightened her. "It's polite to knock you know, I could have been naked."

"Oh, I know." He sent her a wink, causing her face to flush as she turned back to her closet, hoping to hide. Maybe, just maybe, if she slowly moved inside the closet and shut the doors, they would leave her alone? No, she wouldn't be that lucky. "Well, did you want to know what to wear? Because if you want to remain in a towel, none of us are going to complain." Lorelai shot him a glare, but it only made his smirk widen before he stood, gently moving her out of the way as he looked over her closet, clothes all sticking out at strange angles and overstuffed beyond belief. "Avoid skirts and dresses, I've been told that they aren't the most comfortable on the bikes." Lorelai could feel her own smile beginning to spread over her face at the thought of getting back on the bikes. She hated to admit it, but she really did enjoy riding on the back on the motorcycles, feeling the wind rush over her and watching as objects and lights flew past her in streaks. It gave her an adrenaline rush that left her feeling giddy and sent her pulse racing. Before she got a chance to ask Marko where they were going though, he left, leaving her wondering where they could possibly take her. With a shrug, she began rifling through her closet, pulling out an old Motley Crew shirt that was altered into more of a cropped style before going over to her dresser and taking out some leggings. She looked over herself in the mirror after getting dressed, pulling her hair into a loose braid over her shoulder and deciding to ditch putting on any makeup. Her shirt was larger on her, but it was cut just enough to show hints of her torso, more if her leggings weren't high waisted; tonight she decided to be comfy because if she was expected to be out late like last night, then she didn't want to be in jeans for that long. She grabbed Marko's jacket once more before skipping down the stairs, seeing the guys in the exact positions she left them in.

"I'm all yours!" She missed the predatory smiles that spread over their faces as she made her way outside, flicking on the lights for the driveway as she went outside, pausing by the bikes. "Who am I riding with this time?" Before she even glanced over at David, expecting to be on his bike again, an arm wrapped around her waist, Marko steering her towards his instead, helping her on the bike after he got on. "Oh! I forgot to give this to you last night- "Lorelai tried to hand the jacket back, but he just shook his head, blond curls bouncing with the movement.

"Believe me girl, you'll need it more." She frowned, looking over his outfit. It was the same as last night, his arms bare in his white t-shirt, but she didn't feel like arguing as she slipped her arms through the large sleeves. If he wasn't cold the night before from riding, then she assumed that he wouldn't be cold tonight either.

"Wait, I called dibs on Rory riding with me!" She giggled as Marko stuck his tongue out at Paul, who was pouting on the bike next to them. Carefully leaning over, she held out a pinky to him, smiling softly.

"I'll ride with you on the way home, promise." Paul snorted when he saw that she was offering him a pinky promise, but he wrapped his around her, face lighting up once more. After she was settled back on Markos bike they rode off, zipping down the driveway and onto the main road. She smiled, wrapping her arms around Marko's waist as she laid her head on his shoulder as they weaved through the cars on the road. It wasn't until they drove onto the boardwalk and paused before the stairs that she lifted her head, staring wide eyed at the darken beach in front of them. She could see various bonfires scattered along the sand, but besides that, it was empty and dark.

"I think it's time to show Lorelai how we really ride." She looked nervously between the guys as they nodded and reeved their engines, startling anyone close enough near them. Marko leaned back, green eyes scanning over her worried face.

"Scared yet?" She frowned, narrowing her eyes. Scared? Not entirely, she trusted them enough to get onto the back of their bikes to begin with, and she could only imagine how fast they were driving last night, but that was on an actual road, not down steps or over sand. She thought it over, aware that the boys were all waiting for her response. Scared… yes, she was. They rode like maniacs, she knew that, but wasn't riding on the beach considered illegal? And where else would they go after they got on the beach? She met Marko's green eyes, seeing something glittering deep within them, something that made her think that he wanted her to admit that she was scared about what was going to happen next. She moved closer to him, making the distance between their faces almost nonexistent.

"No, I have this terrified look on my face because I'm having so. Much. Fun." They remained locked in gazes for a few more seconds before Marko turned around, his face emotionless. At first, she really believed that she hit a nerve. She was indeed scared, hell every time she was with them she could feel it bubbling just under the surface, but the feeling felt almost numb when she was with the four of them; whenever she was with them, she felt unstoppable, powerful even, like she could do anything with no consequences. She really didn't mean anything by what she said, it was only supposed to be a joke, and Lorelai desperately hoped that they understood, that they wouldn't tell her that she couldn't hang with them anymore. She felt Marko's body moving slightly, so little that she almost didn't catch it; it was the snickering that really caught her attention. "What? Are you laughing at me!" She looked wide eyed at the rest of the guys, who all had that predatory smirks in place, the one that showed more shining white teeth then anything, eyes sparkling in humor; they were laughing at her, but it was something more than that, she couldn't quite put her finger on it though. The way that their eyes were lit up and the energy that was swirling around their small group, it was almost like they enjoyed her fear, like it energized them.

She took a deep breath, pinching the bridge of her nose as her eyes shut, thinking over the pros and cons of allowing them to show her 'how they ride'. Deciding that it couldn't be worse than the night before, she absently waved her right hand as her left wrapped around Marko once more, meeting David's pale eyes with a challenging gleam of her own. "Well, what are we waiting for?" He stared at her for a moment longer before turning, and with a reeve of his engine he was off down the steps. Paul slid up next to her, winking as he reached over, patting her thigh.

"You better hold on chica, you haven't seen anything yet!" Dwayne followed after David, then Paul, then Marko. She expected that the stairs where going to be a lot worse than they actually were, she barely felt any of the bumps as they flew down the wooden steps quickly, it was the sand that was worse, the one thing she really hadn't thought about. Before now, they only drove on the blacktop streets and her slightly dirt covered driveway, but the moment the tires hit the loose sand, she could have sworn that the bike was going to throw the two of them off, and it felt very unstable as they picked up speed to catch up with the rest of the group. Lorelai tightened her hold on Marko, trying but failing to hide the small gasps that left her mouth as they swerved around couples laying on blankets and bonfires lighting up the dark beach. Once they finally caught up to the others, they took to messing around with one another, cutting each other off and moving real close to the others bikes, all things that Lorelai classified as dangerous beyond belief, but slowly she found herself laughing and yelling with them, their energy and the thrill of it all rushing through her. She noticed Marko trying to yell something to her, but with the roar of the wind she couldn't hear him, and she sure as hell wasn't risking a face full of sand that she would surly get if she leaned forward closer to his face; Dwayne's bike was kicking sand at them rapidly. It wasn't until she squinted her eyes, straining against the night that she figured out what he was trying to tell her: duck. With a yelp, she quickly buried her head in between Markos back, right in the space between his shoulder blades, and her own body just as they rode under the pier. If she hadn't noticed the slightly darker mass in front of them, she would have connected face first with the wooden beams that made up the structure. While she felt brave enough to peek out from her hiding spot, she didn't dare raise her head any further then needed; she might be enjoying the rush of the danger, but she didn't want any of the nasty side effects that came with it, such as broken bones or being knocked unconscious. Only a few minutes out from under the pier they arrived at the edge of a forest, though they didn't slow down. It seemed to Lorelai, from what little she could see that is, that they were driving on a dirt path, crudely made with the tires of their bikes from the constant trips, which made her feel more at ease, seeing that they knew what they were doing. After the first branch smacked her shin, Lorelai knew that she had to tuck herself as close to Marko and the bike as possible; it stung like a bitch but she didn't think it was enough to cut her, at least she hoped so, that would be a big bummer on the nights mood if she was to get hurt. The ride through the woods really wasn't all that long and before she knew it, they were slowing down until they stopped at a cliff edge, the lighthouse just off in the distance with its light streaming over them every few seconds. Lorelai jumped off the bike, looking around distractedly as the boys moved their bikes off to the side of the clearing, out of sight to anyone who may have wandered into the area.

"So, how was the ride?" She glanced once over at David, who was leaning against a tree, a cigarette dangling between his fingers, as she wondered closer to the edge. At first, she assumed that he was asking her to make fun of her, but when she found no trace of humor on his face, she knew that he was genuinely asking her if she liked the trip over.

"I actually enjoyed it a lot more than I expected. Though I wish you would have warned me about the pier and forest before. Like, seriously, one of those branches hit me pretty hard." She chuckled to herself as she inched closer to the edge, the urge to peek over the edge growing. She could hear the crashing of the waves and smell the saltwater in the air, almost as strong as it was on the beach. What she didn't take into consideration was that since the water was close, most likely directly beneath her, the ground was probably eroded. She made it to just about the edge of the cliff when the ground began to sink under her foot, instantly creating air underneath her. She let out a small scream in surprise when a pair of arms wrapped around her waist, pulling her backwards into the bare chest of Dwayne. She smiled sheepishly up at him, clutching onto his arms that were wrapped around her. If she wasn't still high on an adrenaline rush from the bikes, she surly would have been freaking out from almost falling off a cliff.

"You should pay more attention." She couldn't help but stare up at Dwayne. Lorelai knew that he was Native American, she could tell from his skin tone and bone structure, but in the moonlight, he looked even more so. It highlighted his tan skin, his dark eyes reflecting the moon, and his long dark hair shone as it blew with the wind, still somehow tame after that bike ride.

"I don't need to be safe when I know I have you all to save me." Lorelai was too busy getting out of Dwayne's grasp and moving to the edge again that she missed the looks that the guys shared with each other. The whole point of them bringing her to the cave was to kill her. That was the point in getting to know her after-all, like cats who play with a mouse before they kill it. After they were invited into her home and saw that her father was out of town, they figured leaving a crime scene for him to come home too would drawl too much attention, so they figured the cave would be the perfect place, or even the woods surrounding the house. If police couldn't find her body, she would be just another runaway. David hadn't meant for the dream walking to go the way it had, he simply went into her mind to slip the idea of the cave into her subconscious, make things easier on them all, but without meaning to, he ended up being a part of her dream, and then the kiss. Of course, as soon as he broke out, the others knew what had happened, they connection never allowed any sort of privacy, not that they minded before, but what happened left them with a feeling of uneasiness. She still had to die, didn't she?

Lorelai peered over the edge, this time taking more caution in where she stepped. She was starstruck at the sight of the lighthouse below them. She was so lost in watching the spotlight shinning over the waves that she hadn't noticed Paul move next to her, not until he threw an arm over her shoulder, causing her to jump slightly. "If you think this is amazing, you should see what's underneath us." Lorelai raised an eyebrow, glancing back and forth between Paul's face and the water.

"Paul, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say the ocean." She chuckled, along with the other guys behind them as Paul pouted. She couldn't help but give him the sarcastic remark, just to mess with his ego, even a little bit. Paul was clearly a player, the first time they met the first thing out of his mouth was flirting and it's been nonstop since then. And while She did like the attention, she knew that she needed to show him that she wasn't just another plaything of his. Just as she went to look over the edge again, she was pulled away by a smirking Paul, clearly over what she said before. "Hey! Come on Paul, where are we going?" She attempted to stop his movements by dragging her feet, but the arm he had placed around her waist kept her moving forward.

"If you don't start moving, I will pick you up." She glared up at the blond, huffing when she noticed the smile he was wearing, full of promise to follow through with his threat. Deciding to keep her pride, she began walking, only pausing once more when Paul brought her to wooden steps that were built into the side of the cliff. They looked old, though they were still put together, and they were extremely steep, leading straight down and around the curve of the land. This time, Paul didn't wait for her before he started heading down the stairs, followed by Dwayne and Marko, both of them smiling as they passed her nervous figure. David was the only one who paused at her side, the corner of his mouth pulled up in a smirk.

"What's wrong? You seem... hesitant." Lorelai frowned, glancing back over at the stairs. It was dark, so she had no idea where they lead to, which also meant that she had no idea what she was going to be walking down in. When she didn't answer, David chuckled, moving closer to her. "You mean to tell me, that you would willingly invite a bunch of strange guys into your house, get on the back of their bikes and ride around for hours, but you won't follow us down a staircase?" Lorelai rubbed the back of her neck, Markos jacket sleeve falling down her arm slightly.

"I felt more control in those situations. But this… this is different." David stared at her for a few moments, in complete awe at her. The things that she should have felt scared about she didn't care but, in this moment, going down somewhere she didn't know, that's when she admitted to being afraid? He walked down a few steps, pausing to turn around with a hand outstretched, his black leather gloves shinning from the moon, begging for her to take it. Lorelai glanced between his open palm to his icy blue eyes, both looking inviting, welcoming for the first time since she met him, well, besides the dream she had earlier. "You know, this place seems really remote, if someone was to scream, no one would hear it, would they?" She chuckled, her smile faltering slightly towards the end. "Did you bring me here to die?"

Of course, she was kidding, David knew that, but he couldn't help the fleeting moment of panic that crossed his mind. That was exactly why they brought her here, this was the perfect opportunity to get rid of their problem once and for all. There was no way that she could have known their motive, but still, it freaked her out. But he simply put on a smile, reaching out more. "Obviously." Lorelai glared playfully at the blond, laughing loudly as she slowly slipped her hand into his larger one, walking down the steps after him.

"I can't tell if you are being sarcastic or not." She followed him down the wooden steps, enjoying the spray of the saltwater on her skin, and as she glanced down at her hair laying over Marko's jacket, she noticed the ends were beginning to curl. Signs littered the sides of the railings and she also noticed them when they got to the chain link fence that blocked a hole in the side of the earth, noticing that they had made it a decent way down; the ocean was practically at their feet. She noticed, coming. From the hole, a distant glowing light came from deep within. Keeping a tight hold on his hand, Lorelai let David help her through the hole in the fence and down the dirt hill that created a sort of walkway into the cave. By the time she got to the final drop-off, she was emerged in the light she saw from above, and her breath caught in her throat. "Holy shit…"


End file.
